Bofors & After The gun fires again

Staff CorrespondentT

The Congress is particularly perturbed about the Bofors chargesheet and has said that the inclusion of Rajiv Gandhi’s name in the list was ``politically motivated’’ to get at Sonia Gandhi. The Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal said that the party would not take such ``insults’’ lying down and that it would meet the challenge politically. Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, himself one of those sought to be questioned by the CBI in the Bofors case, has said that since Rajiv Gandhi was dead, he would not open his mouth regarding any matter pertaining to the assassinated leader. On the other hand, the Union home minister Lal Krishna Advani has said that the CBI chargesheet was indeed ``politically motivated…but to expose corruption at the top.’’, but is eloquently silent on why Hindujas, believed to be one of teh bribe-getters have not been chargesheeted, perhaps they are only too close to the Prime Minister and his people.

On the other hand, the West Bengal Congress has sent a missive to the railways minister Mamata Banerjee saying that she should immediately protest the inclusion of Rajiv’s name in the chargesheet saying that while she was an ally of the BJP, she was also close to the former Prime Minister and had served as minister under him and there was no reason not to believe that she would not raise her voice against this gross act of political injustice and conspiracy.