CHANDIGARH: The Opposition parties in Haryana, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), have separately demanded that the State Parliamentary Affairs Minister and former Youth Congress president Randeep Singh Surjewala resign over his "involvement'' in Volcker issue.

The former Haryana Finance Minister, Sampat Singh, and president of the Haryana unit of the INLD, Ashok Kumar Arora, demanded a full-fledged enquiry into the letter reportedly written by Mr. Surjewala to Jagat Singh, a former Youth Congress general secretary, authorising him to visit Iraq as part of a Youth Congress delegation.

Addressing a press conference here, they said that the Enforcement Directorate could conduct the enquiry as Mr.Jagat Singh had produced this "letter'' during his interrogation before them.

In case no action was forthcoming the INLD would resort to an agitation.

The two leaders said that on the one hand Mr. Surjewala had been maintaining that he had never authorised Mr.Jagat Singh, the son of former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, to visit Iraq and on the other the "letter'' produced by the latter clearly indicated that the Minister was "lying''.

If the letter was "bogus'', Mr. Surjewala should clearly say so, they added.

While alleging that the Congress and the Youth Congress were reportedly involved in the oil-for-food scam, the INLD leaders said that if Mr.Natwar Singh could resign, "tainted'' MPs could be "suspended" from Parliament, then why could not Mr.Surjewala resign or be "dismissed''?

The president of the Haryana unit of the BJP, Ganeshi Lal, said Mr. Surjewala should resign in a dignified manner. He also demanded a CBI probe into the entire episode.

He warned that in case the Minister did not resign, the BJP would launch an agitation and submit a memorandum to the Governor.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail