Thursday, November 10 2005 15:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Sharpening her attack on the Congress over Volcker committee findings, firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti yesterday (Nov 9, 2005) demanded that the letter purported to have been written by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to Saddam Hussein during the period when Iraq's controversial oil-for-food programme was on be made public.

As Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni has admitted that Sonia wrote a letter to Saddam Hussein, the document must be made public irrespective of it being personal in nature or general, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister told reporters.

Claiming that former External Affairs minister K Natwar Singh was retained in the Union cabinet under huge pressure, the stormy sanyasin alleged it is to save Sonia Gandhi that the Prime Minister has retained Singh in his ministry.

Is saving his government more important than saving the country? After all India's standing in the global community has suffered a severe beating by the damning disclosures made in the Volcker committee report.

The disclosures are simply shameful for the nation, she said, adding the revelations would have international repercussions for the country. The BJP leader also assailed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for describing Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad as vikas purush and said Lalu cannot be a vikas purush (man of development) but only a vinash purush (man of destruction). The Prime Minister seems totally ignorant of the ground realities.