The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday claimed that the United Progressive Alliance government's 'latest scandal' involving Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi had vindicated the party's stand. It demanded placement of all documents related to the Bofors case in Parliament.
"The UPA government's latest scandal on Quattrochi vindicates the BJP stand that a person of foreign origin should not be allowed to occupy high office," L K Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and former BJP president told reporters here.
He said that in the spirit of Right to Information Act, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should place all relevant documents in the Bofors probe before the House.
"We are not raking up the foreign origin issue of Sonia Gandhi because it is already there. The Congress split on the issue when Sharad Pawar and P A Sangama left the Congress," he said.
Advani, who is on a day-long visit, said the UPA government is rocked by scandals on the defreezing of Quattrochi's accounts in a London bank, the Volcker report on oil contracts in Iraq and the Scorpene submarine deal.
"Quattrochi's status is on par with Dawood Ibrahim and V Prabhakaran of LTTE, who are fugitives. He has publicly stated he is proud of his friendship with Sonia Gandhi's family. Then, why has Sonia not asked her friend to come to India and face the trial," Advani asked.
Advani said that the Central Bureau of Investigation, which initially froze the Italian businessman's London accounts, made a U-turn to claim that defreezing the London accounts 'was its own decision'.
"Without the prime minister's approval, additional solicitor general B Dutta could not have gone to London," the senior BJP leader said. Advani alleged that the Congress is busy finding a scapegoat to cover up its role in every scam.
"In the Iraq oil-for-food pay-off scam the then external affairs minister Natwar Singh was made a scapegoat and in Quattrochi's case, CBI is the scapegoat," Advani said.
Complete coverage: Bofors, the smoking gun
