‘Quattrocchi was Sonia’s gift to India’

NEW DELHI: The Congress and the Opposition parties appear to be headed for a major showdown in Parliament over the government’s tardy response to the arrest of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, one of the accused in the Bofors pay off case. The NDA and the SP appear all set to haul the UPA government over the coals, once the budget session gets formally underway on Monday with the presentation of the Railway Budget.

The government, meanwhile, has decided to face the Opposition aggressively both inside the Parliament and outside. Sources told DNA that the government is likely to take the position that it was well within its rights not to make the matter public, even as it was taking all possible steps to extradite him. “The government acted with alacrity.  Everything that needs to be done to bring him to India is being done, attempts by the Opposition to politicise the issue will come a cropper,” says Ashok Gehlot, AICC general secretary.

The Congress believes that Bofors as an issue has been flogged to death and the issue is unlikely to excite people anymore. “There is a Bofors fatigue now. The people have moved on,” says a cabinet minister. The government is resigned to the fact that it will be unable to transact much business save for the presentation of the Railway and general budget as it expects the Opposition to stall proceedings. “There is nothing to hide, once the facts are known, the Opposition’s balloon will be pricked,” says a minister.

The NDA has already made it clear that it plans to raise the issue in a big way and on Monday, NDA leaders will meet to draw up the modalities of the strategy to be adopted. “We are mindful of the fact that there are constitutional obligations like the presentation of the two budgets and the economic survey. But we also have a duty to raise such an important issue of public importance,” says Vijay Kumar Malhotra, BJP’s number two man in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP plans to pin down the government for its late response to the arrest and for suppressing the news of his arrest for over a fortnight. “We want the government to tell the nation when the Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson were informed of the arrest of Quattrocchi and what was the government’s response,” says Malhotra.

The BJP has already begun accusing the government of not moving fast enough to get him extradited at the behest of the Congress President. “Quattrocchi was Sonia Gandhi’s gift to India. His extradition and the revelation of full truth will embarrass Gandhi,” says BJP leader Arun Jaitley. The concealment of the news of his arrest was intended to save the Congress from embarrassment during the state assembly elections, he said. “The secrecy was also meant to delay the process of CBI complying with legal formalities to enable his extradition,” said Jaitley.

The issue will also be taken up by the SP in a big way. Relations between the SP and the Congress are at an all time low and the party plans to use the arrest of Quattrocchi to embarrass Gandhi by linking him to the Congress President. The Left parties, however, have made it clear that while it will demand the extradition and swift trial of the Italian businessman, it will not join hands with the BJP. “The issue should not be politicised. We have been raising it for the last 17 years,” says Basudeb Acharya, the CPI(M) leader in the Lok Sabha.