Govt 'ready for' debate on Bofors

NEW DELHI, Oct 27 (PTI, UNI) — The Congress attempt to keep the focus on its demand for the deletion of the late Rajiv Gandhi’s name from the CBI chargesheet in the Bofors case was today foiled in the Lok Sabha by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who said the government was ready for a thorough discussion on the issue.

In a brief intervention, Mr Vajpayee taunted the Congress for "withdrawing" from a discussion after giving notice yesterday which members from the main Opposition party strongly objected.

Raising the issue, Congress member Mani Shankar Aiyer demanded that the Prime Minister should make a statement on the issue raised by them.

Supported by party colleagues, he said Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, who gave the government's response yesterday, was a member of neither House of Parliament and the issue involved a former Prime Minister requiring intervention at the level of Prime Minister.

Party Chief Whip Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said Mr Jaitley was a paid servant of the government having been a prosecutor in this case earlier.

When Mr Vajpayee got up to respond, Congress members raised objections to which Speaker G. M. C. Balayogi took exception.

Mr Vajpayee said the government had made it clear yesterday that if the House wanted a full debate on the issue, it was ready for it.

He told Congress members that the minister who was asked to respond to their concerns had done his job and now to say he was not a member of the House was not proper.

The Prime Minister said he failed to understand the "obstructionist tactics" of the Congress members who asked him to speak on the issue and were interrupting him when he stood up to reply.

He recalled that there had been instances of even prime ministers functioning in the House without being its members.

Mr Vajpayee wanted to know why a notice given by the Congress demanding a special discussion on Bofors was withdrawn by the party yesterday.

"If you give notice for a discussion, we are ready for it," he added.

Even amid protests by Congress members and a request by their Deputy Leader Madhavrao Scindia for an opportunity to rebut the Prime Minister, the Speaker moved on to the next item on the day’s agenda.

Meanwhile, the Congress today said the stand of the government that it could not ask for the deletion of Rajiv Gandhi's name from the Bofors charge sheet was irresponsible and against the Supreme Court's ruling which was the law of the land.

Speaking to newspersons, Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said the prosecution against Mr George Fernandes in the Baroda dynamite case was withdrawn following the decision of the then Central government. On the plea of the public prosecutor for the withdrawal of prosecution as desired by the government the Supreme court had said that the government might suggest to the Public Prosecutor that he might withdraw the prosecution, but none could compel him.

Referring to the argument put forward by Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitely in the Lok Sabha yesterday that the matter was in the court and therefore, the court would decide it, Mr Sibal said an accused who had no rights of an accused could not be an accused.

A "dead person cannot be put as an accused as he cannot defend himself or through a pleader and he cannot be summoned. Citing some cases of including dead persons as accused has no merit and it is against the law of the land," Mr Sibal said. "No responsible government can make such a statement and it is a matter of regret," he said.

However, the BJP today said the Congress was running away from a debate on the Bofors case after initially agreeing to it.

Ridiculing the Congress for the sudden change in its stand, BJP spokesman M. Venkaiah Naidu said it looked as if the main Opposition party in the Lok Sabha had realised that truth and facts hurt most. Therefore, they were running away from a debate.

It was the same attitude of the Congress during the Jain Commission proceedings also.

"We have nothing to hide. They have everything to hide," Mr Naidu added.

He said the Prime Minister had made the government stand clear for a debate on the subject. It was for the Congress to respond.