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Congress leaders rise to protect Rajiv from Bofors recoil

The leading lights of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, including Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, DPCC president Subhash Chopra, Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, Friday sat on a dharna to protest the late Rajiv Gandhi's name in the Bofors chargesheet.

Shouting slogans against the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, they sat for about two hours at Jantar Mantar this morning. They charged the government with indulging in ''political vendetta'' against Gandhi, who, they said, was totally innocent.

Among the others who participated in the dharna were Jag Pravesh Chandra, Tajdar Babbar, J P Aggarwal, Delhi Speaker Deep Chand Bandhu, Deputy Speaker Kiran Choudhary and Legislators Mukesh Sharma, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Zile Singh.

Subhash Chopra said it was a matter of shame that a great leader like Rajiv Gandhi, who sacrificed his life for the sake of the unity and integrity of the country, had been charged with the Bofors scandal. This was done to humiliate the Congress fraternity, he added.

The DPCC chief warned the government that the Congress would not take this lightly. It would not, he said, remain silent spectators to the "nefarious designs of the Vajpayee government to defame the spotless image of Rajiv Gandhi."

UNI

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