The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : `The word, mole, not used in book'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 07, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

`The word, mole, not used in book'

Special Correspondent

It is the invention of the media: Venkaiah

BANGALORE: The BJP on Sunday maintained that leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh had not used the word "mole" in his book "Call to Honour: In Service of Emergent India" and it was the invention of the media.

Mr. Jaswant Singh stirred up a controversy alleging that there was the "mole-in-the-PMO" during the P.V. Narasimha Rao regime. "Mole is not used by Mr. Jaswant Singh," BJP vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu, MP, said.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Naidu said Mr. Jaswant Singh had not used the word mole but the bottom line was whether there was surveillance by a foreign power or not when P.V. Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister.

When presspersons asked repeated questions on the mole controversy created by Mr. Jaswant Singh, the former BJP president said, "show one instance where he (Mr. Jaswant Singh) has used the word mole in his book. The party is of the view that because of U.S. pressure, the nuclear test was stopped during the Narasimha Rao regime."

The former President R. Venkataraman had also mentioned in his book about the nuclear test being stopped because of American pressure during the Congress rule in the early 1990s. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao Government, had then opposed India conducting a nuclear test. The second government formed by the BJP at the Centre conducted a nuclear test within days of coming to power, Mr. Naidu said. Mr. Naidu said that suspended party MLC G. Janardhana Reddy's allegation against Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and two Ministers would in no way affect the morale of the party.

He said if Mr. Reddy had any evidence to prove charges against the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues on the bribery issue, he must place it before the party leaders first. Mr. Naidu, who has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from the State, alleged that the Centre had been discriminating against the State by denying a package for farmers. In view of the large number of suicides by farmers, the Prime Minister had announced a special package for Maharashtra. Many farmers had committed suicides in the State also, he said and urged the Centre to announce a package to help farmers here.

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