Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party president L.K. Advani on Wednesday dared Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to come clean on the Volcker Committee revelations on Iraq's `Oil-for-Food' programme or resign as the head of the National Advisory Council.

Mr. Advani accused the Congress and its "ruling dynasty" of being the fountainhead of all corruption in the country. "While that does not justify the actions of some of our own members in the recent scandal involving parliamentarians, it reinforces our conviction that unless the Congress culture is uprooted lock, stock and barrel from our system, the task of combating corruption will never be accomplished."

The Volcker Report only reinforced the Congress' utter disregard for probity in public life. "It is the responsibility of every member of the BJP to carry this shameless tale of sleaze to every corner of India and mobilise the people to demand an explanation."

Praise for Indira

The BJP chief had a word of praise for Indira Gandhi while comparing her with her daughter-in-law. "Indira Gandhi never shifted the blame on anybody else. ... She owned responsibility even for imposing the Emergency in 1975, but Sonia Gandhi obviously is not in the same league."

Mr. Advani said Ms. Sonia Gandhi must tell the nation how much she knew about the Volcker Report and how the Congress came to be listed as a non-contractual beneficiary.

He did not spare the Left parties either, saying "the Marxists growl in Delhi but only threaten to bite." The contradictions between the Congress and the Left parties were best reflected in West Bengal and Kerala.

He described the south and the east as the potential growth areas for the party. "The BJP has a glorious past. But a magnificent future awaits us. We must seize the moment with all the conviction and passion at our command. We are the nation's instrument for transformation to a great power. We cannot afford to disappoint our one billion people."

Mr. Advani said, "The BJP is not only the leader but also the moral force that binds allied regional parties to a national alliance like the NDA. In the coalition era, it is essential that we retain the NDA's cohesion. The BJP is committed to its ideological programme."

The BJP was going through a "bad patch" as far as media coverage was concerned but he would not "totally blame the media" for the present state of affairs. "As a journalist myself, I know I can't help but write what you have been writing. I know if I collapse now, it will make headlines and not my speech."

Mr. Advani, however, took exception to the media projecting Gujarat as if a "civil war was taking place there."

Another rath yatra?

He expressed his wish to lead a Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra to acknowledge the sacrifices of the heroes of Indian independence. He had asked the partymen to prepare a list of 500 to 700 national heroes and he wanted to visit their birthplaces or their workplace.

"I feel I should visit these places to highlight their selfless contributions to the freedom struggle. ... It is another thing that their aspirations could not be fulfilled even after 50 years because of the inability of the successive governments to fulfil even basic developmental promises like irrigation, drinking water and roads."

Mr. Advani was critical of the economic, foreign and internal security policies being pursued by the UPA Government. "Clearly, in just 19 months, the incumbent regime led nominally by Manmohan Singh and actually by Sonia Gandhi has frittered away all the gains notched up by the Vajpayee Government."

— UNI, PTI

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