The Hindu : National : JD(U) criticises Lalu on Bofors statement

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Monday, Feb 26, 2007
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JD(U) criticises Lalu on Bofors statement

PATNA: Criticising Railway Minister Lalu Prasad for allegedly retracting his earlier statement on the Bofors pay-off case, Bihar's ruling Janata Dal (United) on Sunday said that he was trying to curry favour with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on the issue.

When Mr. Prasad was with the former Prime Minister, V.P. Singh, he had taken on the Congress and the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, on the Bofors case before his party entered into an alliance with the Congress, the JD(U) said.

"He is now trying to butter Sonia Gandhi up by trying to divert the people's attention on the issue,'' JD(U) spokesman Shivanand Tiwari and state party president Rajiv Ranjan Singh said in a joint statement here.

Reacting to Mr. Prasad's statement that the Bofors guns were very useful and came in handy during the Kargil conflict, Mr. Tiwari said, ``Such a statement at this stage when there is no debate on the usefulness of the Bofors guns is ridiculous."

The current episode related to the ``hiding'' of information about the detention in Argentina of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, wanted in the Bofors case, for which the NDA had decided to take on the Government in Parliament on Monday.

"This is the most important issue. Why were they silent for 17 days after the arrest of Quattrocchi?" Mr. Tiwari asked.

Mr. Prasad said in New Delhi that the Bofors guns proved effective during the Kargi conflict and slammed the BJP for ``crying Bofors on and off.'' Mr. Quattrocchi, wanted in the Bofors case for the past 14 years, was detained in Argentina on February 6 while on his way to Buenos Aires. — PTI

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