Saturday, January 14 2006 12:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition L K Advani yesterday (Jan 13,2006)asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi to 'come clean' on Bofors issue following CBI's decision to defreeze two accounts of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, main accused in Bofors case.

Advani said he would not attend the January 20 all-party meeting called by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in the wake of the High Court notices over expulsion of 10 MPs in the cash-for-query scam as he would be 'busy with the BJP national council meeting'.

"It is a serious matter (fresh controversy relating to Bofors issue). I would expect the Prime Minister and Congress President to make their stand clear", he told sources here.

"Silence does not absolve them of the responsibility to lay all the cards on the table", the former BJP Chief said.

"I don't think so", Advani said when asked whether he believed the Prime Minister's Office was kept in the dark on Additional Solicitor General's statement before the Crown Prosecution of Britain that there was no evidence to link funds in two frozen bank accounts of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi and Bofors pay-offs.

"Both the Prime Minister and the Congress President should come out clean as to where they stand on what had been going on?", he said.

Earlier in the day, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Arun Jaitley told reporters that "If the Prime Minister was in full knowledge, he is equally culpable. If the Prime Minister was unaware, it is for him to introspect the kind of government he is running. The nation awaits a clarification from PMO".

Advani said he would not attend the all-party meeting called by the Speaker over the Delhi High Court notices on the expulsion of MPs.

"I would be pre-occupied with the party's National Council meeting (called to ratify the appointment of Rajnath Singh as BJP President)", he said.

He, however, replied in the affirmative when asked whether other party leaders would be attending the January 20 meeting.

Advani had led the BJP members out of Lok Sabha when the motion for the expulsion of the MPs, including five from the party, was put to vote. He had described the act of the MPs as 'stupidity' and the move to expel them as 'punishment disproportionate to crime'.

His decision had come in for criticism from both within and outside the party on the ground that it sent out a message that the party was 'shielding the corrupt'.

A meeting of BJP leaders here on Wednesday had described as 'inappropriate'the all-party meeting saying it could set the legislature and the judiciary on a collision course.

Asked whether his telephones too were tapped as alleged by some of his party colleagues, Advani said, "I don't know. One of my colleagues had told me that my telephones were tapped during the height of the Volcker controversy but I am not aware of it".