Phagwara: Raking up Congress president Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue, Union Law and Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley today (Feb 23, 2004) said such a person could not be made the Prime Minister, who has to handle very sensitive issues.

"The reins of the country cannot be entrusted to a foreign-origin person as very sensitive issues like bilateral talks with Pakistan, Hurriyat Conference, Jammu and Kashmir, economy, foreign affairs and nuclear matters are involved and a 'novice' like Gandhi cannot be expected to handle these," he told a press conference.

On Gandhi's statement that to become the Prime Minister was not her priority, Jaitley said, "It is good that she has understood and accepted the ground realities. Sonia Gandhi has no chance of becoming the Prime Minister as Atal Behari Vajpayee will again hold the high office after the coming Lok Sabha polls."

"We are not raking up the foreign origin issue of Gandhi. It is a real issue touching every citizen, the nation and the self-pride of people. How can she have credibility when she took 17 long years to become a citizen of India," he asked.

When his attention was drawn to Gandhi's statement that her transition as an Indian was complete, Jaitley asked her to tell the date when it happened.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has an able leadership in the form of an "internationally acclaimed statesman", Atal Behari Vajpayee, a good team of leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies and an outstanding performance to its credit, he claimed and asked Congress to name its Prime Minister and Finance Minister.