Sunday, September 18 2005 15:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Congress today (Sept 18, 2005) dismissed as 'pure sensationalism and vague allegations' reports that the Soviet secret service KGB had bribed its politicians including ministers in Indira Gandhi's Government as claimed in a new book.

"This is pure sensationalism not even remotely based on facts or records," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said reacting to disclosures contained in 'The Mitrokhin Archives II: The KGB and the World', excerpts of which were published in a London daily yesterday.

"These are all vague allegations," he said pointing out that they were not the officially released USSR archive records and were based on papers 'stolen' by a person who defected to the West in 1992. They are not official records."

"They should not be dignified by reaction," he said adding "it is the version of a person who is publishing it after 15 years of his defection and 50 years after everybody involved in the incidents was present, almost everyone has died. There is no way of checking."

Besides, he noted that there was not a single specific fact date or name given in the disclosures, which "are only meant for sensationalism. They have no truth at all."

The book had claimed that India was one of the countries 'most successfully penetrated' by KGB and that the Kremlin spent a fortune trying to influence the press, police, ministers and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.