BJP, govt argue over old treaty

NEW DELHI: A treaty signed by the British with Argentina in the colonial era has become the latest ammunition in the hands of the BJP to target the Congress-led UPA government on the Bofors issue.

Party leaders maintain that the pre-independence treaty could be used to pursue the case for extradition from Argentina of Ottavio Quattrocchi, accused in the bribery scandal.

Addressing a joint press conference, BJP leaders LK Advani and Jaswant Singh said: “How can the government say that there is no extradition treaty? This is not correct. Quattrocchi knows the real beneficiaries of the Bofors scam. The Italian businessman is being prevented from being brought back to India.”

Parliament records show that on March 16, 1956, the government had annexed a list of “extradition treaties with foreign countries executed by the United Kingdom on behalf of the Government of India before Independence and still in force”.  Argentina is second on the list and the treaty was signed on May 22, 1889.

Foreign office spokesman Navtej Sarna, however, refuted the BJP’s charges, pointing out that the 1889 treaty is inoperative.

"The  Extradition Treaty of 1889 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland and the Argentine Republic was applicable to British India. However,  post-independence, following the enactment of The Extradition Act, 1962, by the Indian Parliament, the treaty of 1889 is not operative since it was not notified in accordance with Section 3, Clause (3) of the Act, after having obtained the consent of the Government of the Argentine Republic. Thus, India does not have any currently operative Extradition Treaty with Argentina,” Sarna explained.