Congress, BJP trade charges on Bofors

The Congress has asked Atal Behari Vajpayee to come clean over why, in his capacity as the opposition leader, he had written to the then PM PV Narasimha Rao "pleading on behalf of the Hinduja brothers."

The party has sought Vajpayee's explanation on why he failed to extradite Ottavio Quattrocchi from Malaysia during his six-year tenure. "New Delhi could have used its economic leverage over Malaysia to realise this objective", said Ramesh.

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The Congress has also asked Vajpayee why as the opposition leader he had "bombarded the then United Front Government in 1996-97 with letters against Snamp-rogetti's involvement in the Indo-Oman urea joint venture project, but then reversed his position completely after becoming the PM."

Sonia Gandhi also broke her silence over Bofors while addressing an election rally in Chhattisgarh. She attacked the BJP for habitually raking up the Bofors issue on the eve of polls.

In Amethi, Rahul Gandhi dismissed the BJP's bid to raise Bofors and foreign-origin issues as "signs of its frustration." "After finding that its feel-good claims are not cutting much ice with the people, the BJP is trying to grab power by diverting the attention of the people by raking up these issues".