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Sonia flays govt over Bofors

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sonia Gandhi has said that the naming of Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors case chargesheet was political. She described the action as despicable.

Speaking on the debate on the motion of thanks to President K R Narayanan for his address to a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament, the Congress president said the chargesheet was filed for 'political reasons' and therefore the move was 'malicious'.

She said that the law must follow its own course and the guilty must be punished, but it was not right to name 'an innocent man', especially when he was not here to defend himself.

Sonia added that the Congress would take all steps to defend the reputation of Rajiv Gandhi, but ''what we will not do is disrupt the working of the government''.

She warned the government that her party and the people would not tolerate any attempt to subvert the nation's secular heritage.

Later, Parliament adopted the motion of thanks to the President for his address to the joint sitting of both Houses, with the Lok Sabha approving it with voice vote in a late night sitting concluding with the reply of Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani.

Advani rejected the suggestion of some Opposition members that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government is a minority government.

He reiterated that this was the first time since 1984 that the President had not asked the PM for a floor test.

On the issue of electoral reforms, Advani said that the government would take into consideration the Goswami, Indrajit Gupta and Law Commission reports.

He promised appropriate action on various points raised by Mani Shankar Aiyar and other members who had referred to the Bofors chargesheet. He also said he appreciated the sentiments expressed by Sonia Gandhi about the reference to Rajiv Gandhi in the chargesheet.

About thirty members took part in the discussion which lasted almost 12 hours spread over the past three days.

UNI

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