New Delhi, Oct. 24 :
New Delhi, Oct. 24:
The BJP has lined up teams under two Aruns to pin down the Congress in both Houses of Parliament on the Bofors issue.
The BJP is keen to keep up the pressure on the Congress, which is still reeling under the impact of the poll debacle, and is determined to embarrass the party by stressing on the role of the Gandhi family in the case.
In the Rajya Sabha, the party will field journalist-turned-politician Arun Shourie and law minister Ram Jethmalani. They have both been following the 13-year case with great interest.
BJP sources said the duo is well-versed in the subject and no Congress leader in the Rajya Sabha, from Pranab Mukherjee to Manmohan Singh, can hope to match them. Shourie, the BJP claims, has all the facts at the tip of his fingers and is already working on his presentation in the House.
Foreign minister Jaswant Singh, who has replaced Sikander Bakht as the party?s leader in the Rajya Sabha, can join in once the debate starts rolling.
In the Lok Sabha, the BJP will rely on a newcomer, information minister Arun Jaitley, to spearhead its debate. He was involved in investigations in the case during his stint as additional attorney-general in the early Nineties. He is not yet familiar with the rules of parliamentary conduct and is reading up to put up a good performance. The lawyer-turned-politician had told journalists earlier that he knows the Bofors case ?like the back of my palm?.
Jaitley has got cracking on the debate even before it has opened in Parliament. Speaking on a television channel today, he defended the inclusion of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi?s name in the Bofors chargesheet.
Jaitley said there was a hue and cry everytime a corruption case involving abuse of public office came up. He cited the example of Benazir Bhutto, who has alleged that the cases against her are ?politically motivated?.
Janata Dal (United) leader George Fernandes will be another key speaker for the government. Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee will participate at a later stage.
The Congress Parliamentary Party is meeting tomorrow to chalk out its strategy. The President is scheduled to address a joint session of Parliament in the Central Hall tomorrow. Usually, the two Houses meet only for a brief while after the President?s speech is over. The Congress is yet to decide whether it will bring up the Bofors issue then.
The real action is expected to begin the day after. At the CPP meeting, Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Madhavrao Scindia and Priya Ranjan Das Munshi will work out how the Bofors issue would be dealt with.
The Congress is doing its homework to identify the loopholes in the chargesheet. The Congress Working Committee statement issued today said: ?Any attempt from any quarter at slandering or maligning the party and its leadership will be strongly resisted.?
This makes it clear the party will go all out to thwart the BJP?s meticulously-planned anti-Rajiv Gandhi propaganda blitz.
The Congress is hoping for tacit support from the Left which has in its ranks powerful parliamentarians like Indrajit Gupta and Somnath Chatterjee who have spoken on the issue in the Lok Sabha over and over again. Already, the CPM has found loopholes in the Bofors chargesheet.
The CPM feels the chargesheet is politically motivated because the Hindujas have been omitted from the first list of accused.
Somnath Chatterjee today said Rajiv Gandhi?s name could have been omitted from the chargesheet altogether. He said the government was unable to completely dissociate itself from political aspects of the case.
The Trinamul Congress? stance on the debate will be interesting. The party?s MPs have told their leader Mamata Banerjee that the BJP government was politicising the issue unnecessarily. Mamata has said nothing about the chargesheet, but it is evident that she is not entirely happy.