New Delhi: Raking up Congress President Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue once again, NDA (National Democratic Alliance) today (Aug 24, 2004) held her "directly responsible" for re-opening of the cases against former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharati and demanded their immediate withdrawal.

The Opposition alliance also urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately re-install V D Savarkar's plaque at the Cellular Jail in Port Blair and removal of "tainted" ministers from the Union Government.

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Making a scathing attack on Gandhi, a meeting of NDA MPs, chaired by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, passed a resolution that accused her of "ordering her party's Government in Karnataka to reopen a baseless 10-year old case against Uma Bharati in Flag-hoisting incident in Hubli."

"This is a blatant and desperate attempt by the Congress party to protect several tainted Ministers in the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Government, whose removal is now sought even by some constituents of the UPA themselves," the resolution said.

"Indeed, our worst fears about Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin have now come true because she has sought to equate Bharati, who agitated for the Citizens' Right to hoist the tricolour at any public place, with those in the UPA Government who are charged with heinous crimes like murder, kidnapping, extortion, fraud and loot of the public exchequer," the resolution said.

It alleged that by "protecting" tainted ministers on the one hand, and seeking Bharati's arrest on the other, Gandhi has "clearly shown that she does not understand the history and ethos of India, nor the psyche of the Indian people".