Quattrocchi: NDA delegation to meet President Kalam

    New Delhi: A delegation of the opposition National Democratic Alliance is scheduled to meet President A P J Abdul Kalam today to petition him against the United Progressive Alliance Government's alleged role in acquiting Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani and NDA convener George Fernandes would lead the delegation that plans to highlight the logic behind its criticism of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his statement that he was unaware of the Crown Prosecution Service's move to "defreeze" two accounts of Quattrocchi. Besides NDA leaders, senior BJP leaders Jaswant Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Vijay Kumar Malhotra will also be a part of the delegation.

   Earlier on Thursday, Fernandes had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi urging her to get back Quattrocchi to face trial in India. Quattrocchi was a regular visitor to the Nehru-Gandhi family during his period of stay here during the 1970's to the 1990's when he fled India to evade trial in the Bofors case. The Government has been in the eye of storm since New Delhi gave the go ahead for de-freezing of Quattrocchi's bank accounts in Britain, which has remained suspended since 2001. Law Minister H R Bharadwaj had said that the British government had been pressing for clear evidence against the businessman as he had already won an extradition case filed by India in a Malaysian court. But in a major setback for the government, the Supreme Court acting on a plea stepped in on Monday ordering New Delhi to stay the de-freezing till the hearing scheduled for next week. India's biggest arms scandal ever, the Bofors bribery controversy played a major role in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi losing elections in 1989. Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991, was cleared posthumously of any involvement in the 1.2 billion-dollar deal, which was signed when he was the Prime Minister. The Delhi Court had in 2004, also acquitted the London based Hinduja brothers of all charges in the 1986 sale of the Bofors 155-mm howitzers to the Indian Army.

Advani revives Sonia's foreign origin issue

    New Delhi: The foreign origin issue which was given a burial after Sonia Gandhi's renunciation act in 2004 is set to appear again with Quattrocchi's Italian connection. The leader of the opposition L.K.Advani today directly hit Sonia Gandhi by saying "Who has a relation with Quattrocchi, not Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but the person of foreign origin is the one related. That person is chief of the Congress party who has been made the chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA). "The Bofors scandal has resurfaced again because of that person," he added. Advani minced no words to indict UPA Chairperson of all the recent woes "the Congress was facing with the Mitrokhin Archives, the Volcker issue and Quattrocchi's issue." Brushing aside the suggestion that "foreign origin issue is an academic question," he said that "the recent Bofors episode has established that it is no more an academic issue but has direct links with national interests."

    Addressing the party's National Council meeting, Advani enumerated the instances where the Congress split on the issue of foreign origin. "The last spilt in the Congress was on the issue of barring foreign born leaders from occupying top government jobs," he said referring to the breaking away of a group led by Sharad Pawar and PA Sangma to form the Nationalist Congress Party. He also went on to give a clean chit to the Union Law minister H.R.Bhardwaj on the issue of defreezing Quattrocchi's London bank account by saying "Bhardwaj has no connection with Quattrocchi." This was in total contrast with that of the memorandum submitted by the top NDA (National Democratic Alliance) leaders to the President of India, A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, earlier in the day, where they had demanded immediate resignation of Bhardwaj. The memorandum also demanded that "Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi should come out openly to dispel doubts about their position which have been raised in public mind." NDA convener, George Fernandes had yesterday written a letter to Sonia Gandhi asking her to come clean on the recent issues concerning the Bofors scam.

   Both Bofors and Sonia Gandhi's foreign issue had plagued the Congress Party for a long time. India's biggest arms scandal ever, the Bofors bribery case had toppled former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi from power in 1989. Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991, was cleared posthumously of involvement in the Rs 64 crores (USD 300 million) deal, which was signed when he was Prime Minister. The Delhi High court had in 2004 and 2005 acquitted the Hinduja brothers and cleared the name of Gandhi family from all charges in the 1986 sale of 155-mm howitzers to India's army by the Swedish firm. In December 2005 an Additional Solicitor General of India asked the British Government through the Crown Prosecution Services to de freeze the accounts of Ottavio Quattrocchi which had been frozen in 2003 at the request of CBI. Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue had always been the opposition party's favourite tool to attack Congress party with. But after she refused to become Prime Minister, the issue had lost its importance. Ottavio Quattrocchi's, alleged beneficiary in the Bofors kickback, is also Italian by nationality from where Sonia Gandhi has her origin.

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