The Hindu : BJP rakes up foreign origin issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 11, 2003

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National

BJP rakes up foreign origin issue

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI AUG. 10. The Bharatiya Janata Party today raked up the issues of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin and legislation on building a Ram temple at Ayodhya.

At a "parivartan" rally at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here, Mr. Malhotra, reacting to Ms. Gandhi's speech at a Congress rally here on Saturday on the occasion of August Kranti Day, said it was "unfortunate" that the Congress was projecting a person of foreign origin as their leader on `Quit India' day.

Referring to Ms. Gandhi's remark, "Hey Ram, save the country from these bhakts", Mr. Malhotra said if Ms. Gandhi stopped opposing the construction of a Ram temple and supported the movement, the Vajpayee Government was ready to introduce legislation in this regard during the current session of Parliament.

He said an unnecessary controversy was sought to be created with regard to the cases against the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, as there was nothing in the tapes that were made during the Congress regime.

On the controversy over giving the Central Vigilance Commission's report on defence deals to the Public Accounts Committee, Mr. Malhotra said the Centre had no objection to showing the papers but warned that it would expose the "corrupt" defence deals struck during the Congress rule at the Centre. It would also bring out the secrets with regard to `Operation Vijay' in Kargil which would not be good for the country.

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