NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh denied on Sunday that Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh had sent the name of any "mole" to him. In fact, in a strongly worded letter, the Prime Minister asked Mr. Jaswant Singh to "disclose" the name "to the public."

Acknowledging the receipt of a letter dated July 28 from the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, the Prime Minister said a copy of the "document" sent to him was published in the latest issue of India Today. Also, "the document was not original," it had "no signature or letterhead," and it gave no confirmation of the name of the alleged informant. Nor did it indicate if the alleged "mole" was from the Prime Minister's Office during the tenure of the Narasimha Rao Government.

Releasing the letter to the press, Sanjaya Baru, Media Adviser to the Prime Minister, pointed out that reports appeared in a section of the press that Mr. Jaswant Singh had conveyed to Dr. Manmohan Singh the name of the "mole" mentioned in his book, Call To Honour — In Service of Emergent India.

The Prime Minister expressed surprise that "the material sent by you [Mr. Jaswant Singh] was in your possession when you were a member of the Union Council of Ministers and still you did not share it with my predecessor [Atal Bihari Vajpayee]."

He once again asked Mr. Jaswant Singh to "disclose" the name of the alleged mole "to the public."

In the book, Mr. Jaswant Singh alleged that facts about India's nuclear programme, especially details of the plans to carry out nuclear tests, had been leaked by a "mole" in the PMO to the Americans in the Nineties.

At a press conference here on July 25, Mr. Jaswant Singh gave broad hints that the alleged "mole," a former civil servant, was now living "abroad."

He has been criticised by several political parties for besmirching the reputation of many senior retired civil servants.

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