NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Friday joined the government in dismissing the Opposition demand for the resignation of Congress president Sonia Gandhi as Chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC), even as fresh claims on the Volcker Report added to the controversy just days after it quietened following discussions in both Houses of Parliament.

While Finance Minister P. Chidambaram described the demand as "bizarre," the Communist Party of India (Marxist) questioned its rationale and the Communist Party of India said the BJP should set its house in order first.

Mr. Chidambaram said the Enforcement Directorate was confident of wrapping up its investigations soon. It would also probe the statements made by India's Ambassador to Croatia Aniel Matherani in a television interview.

(Mr. Matherani said he was personally a witness to the involvement of the former External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, in the oil-for-food scam.)

The CPI (M) held no brief for the Congress or Mr. Singh, its spokesman Nilotpal Basu said.

He reiterated the party position that besides the Minister and the Congress, all those named "non-contractual beneficiaries" of the United Nations food-for-oil programme for Iraq in the Volcker Report should be brought under the purview of the ongoing enquiry.

As to why the CPI (M) was not demanding Mr. Singh's resignation, he said: "Volcker himself has said that his conclusions are unverified.

Also, it is unfair to say that we are defending Mr. Singh just because we are not demanding his resignation." On the demand for Ms. Gandhi's resignation, Mr. Basu asked: "Why should she [resign]?" He said, "There is no reason for stalling proceedings" over Mr. Matherani's interview. "I cannot recall any instance of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee making a statement on corruption charges at such short notice during the National Democratic Alliance regime."

Speaking in a similar vein, Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) accused the Opposition of "parliamentary terrorism."

He said, "The BJP has evolved a tactic whereby it makes its point and creates a situation that leads to an adjournment immediately after its leaders have spoken. As a result, other parties do not get a say and the message goes out that they [BJP] are the lone crusaders against corruption." The BJP described the Prime Minister's statement as "disappointing and a shameless effort to protect the party and its leaders."

Briefing mediapersons, its spokesman V. K. Malhotra said Mr. Matherani's interview indicated that the Prime Minister and the Congress were in the know of the deal all along and misled the nation.

Mr. Malhotra said Monday's NDA meeting, to discuss raising in Parliament the issue of foreign funding of political parties in the light of the disclosures in Mitrokhin Archives, would also find a mechanism to keep the Volcker issue alive in the light of Mr. Matherani's interview.

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