Cong's charges beneath levels of decency, says BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday described the Congress' allegation against its leaders of having links with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia as 'beneath levels of decency' and 'unacceptable' and the party's senior leader Ananth Kumar served a legal notice against those who had made the charges.

"Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi has made statements which are beneath the levels of decency and are unacceptable. The Congress has found a credible source in Rao Dheeraj Singh who was an associate of the lobbyist. He had earlier been jailed for two years for abducting her son," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

BJP described Singh as a "person who is a persona non-grata" who also happens to be the son of a Congress leader. "He is levelling charges against our leaders. These are tell-tale signs of Congress today," Rudy said.

Party sources said Kumar has initiated legal action against Singh, the news channel which had telecast his comments, its associate news magazine and some senior employees of the organisations.

BJP dismissed all the charges as 'baseless'. "Singhvi has said cabinet papers were leaked during the National Democratic Alliance's rule. What papers, pertaining to what issue, and to which journalist were they leaked? The Congress should give proof," Rudy said.

The Rajya Sabha MP also denied the allegation that land was allotted to a trust controlled by Radia. "The land was allotted to Pejavar Swami partially in 1996 when P V Narasimha Rao was prime minister. Full allotment was done when I K Gujral was the PM and the government was supported by the Congress," Rudy said.

Reacting to another allegation that Radia had benefited from a helicopter deal in 1998 involving Karnataka and Maharashtra governments, BJP said both the states had Congress governments led by J H Patel and Vilasrao Deshmukh respectively at that time.

"The BJP wants proof. The Congress should either give proof or apologise," Rudy said. The BJP also asked the Congress to furnish proof of the alleged Swiss bank account held by Ananth Kumar in Zurich.

"The prime minister, who is Mr Clean, had said in Parliament that he would bring back within 100 days Rs one lakh crore of Indian black money stashed away abroad. We request the prime minister to at least furnish the names of people who have stashed away this money," Rudy said.