Within the government and the Congress, pressure mounted to sack Law Minister H R Bharadwaj for his clean chit to Quattrocchi.
NEW DELHI: Congress on Friday sought to distance itself from a controversial decision related to Ottavio Quattrocchi accused in the Bofors payoff scandal, even as the BJP blamed it on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded the resignation of the law minister.
Sources said the prime minister, who was "visibly upset and angry over the recent developments", had made it clear to a group of senior Congress leaders who called on him on Friday that he had not been informed of the permission given to de-freeze two London bank accounts of Quattrocchi in which the kickbacks for the 1987 Bofors arms deal were allegedly deposited.
Within the government and the Congress, pressure mounted to sack Law Minister H R Bharadwaj for his clean chit to Quattrocchi. Bharadwaj's stance ran counter to that of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which reiterated it was seeking the Italian's extradition in the Bofors case.
"We have nothing to do with this," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said at a press conference, when questioned about the Quattrocchi episode.
"We are not privy to this. The Congress has played no role in this. The law will take its own course and the guilty should be punished," Singhvi added.
"We are not holding any brief for Quattrocchi. He is incapable or capable of defending or not defending himself," he contended.
A section of Congress leaders claimed Bharadwaj had given Quattrocchi a clean chit without the "permission of the prime minister and sanction of Congress president" only to "show his loyalty" to the party leadership.
"It is ridiculous. Everyone is taking his own decision. How can the party and the government afford this?" questioned a former member of the Congress Working Committee, who did not want to be identified.
Sensing the government had been caught on the wrong foot, the BJP was unusually harsh on the prime minister.
"If the prime minister was in the know of it, then he is equally culpable. If he was not aware, then it is for him to introspect as to what kind of government he is running," BJP leader Arun Jaitley said.
"We are saddened that such a major decision has been taken (to de-freeze Quattrocchi's accounts) and the prime minister was not aware of this," Jaitley added.
Demanding Bharadwaj's resignation, Jaitley also vent his ire on the law ministry and its officials.
"They were complete usurpers of power; they were interlopers; they were hustlers who edged out the CBI and took on themselves to decide whether Quattrocchi was guilty or not," Jaitley said.
George Fernandes, convener of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), asked the prime minister to explain the situation.
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