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Defence experts, scholars and senior journalists assembled at a seminar organised by BJP Think Tank in New Delhi, raised the question over the studied silence maintained by the UPA government on the recent revelations made by a former KGB official. They wondered why the government was so afraid of an inquiry into the matter if it felt the Congress and Left party leaders did not receive money. The scholars demanded disclosures of all the leaders? names that received money from KGB.
NDA convenor, Shri George Fernan-des, described the KGB revelations as an act of treachery on the part of some Indian leaders. ?The treachery of the Leftists is well known in every field. Their comments on these revelations create doubts about them. After all, why are they fighting shy of an inquiry?? he said, adding that the issue should not be closed only after some discussions but a mass movement should be launched on the issue. Otherwise, the leaders and their parties, who received money, would remain unexposed.
?It is not the matter of just receiving money by some political leaders or giving money by KGB. It is much more. Mitrokhin revealed very little information about India in two chapters of his book. It is said he had stolen about 10 trunks full of documents from the Russian archives, where he was working. The government must try to find what more information those documents contain. Therefore, the government should not close the issue just making some casual statements,? said senior journalist Shri Swapna Dasgupta. He urged the countrymen to exert pressure on the government for an inquiry. ?It will be in the national interest if our government pressurises the British government to hand over those valuable documents to India that are with it now,? he added.
Coming down heavily on the media, Shri Arun Shourie, a noted journalist and former Union Minister, said if such allegations had been made against the BJP or RSS leaders, the media would have created a storm. He said it was wrong to dismiss Mitrokhin by terming him ?just a low-grade clerk and his revelations, the stolen documents?. ?The documents are valuable. That is why they were stolen. If they were not valuable, why would Mitrokhin have stolen them,? he asked.
Shri Mahesh Sharma, former chairman, Khadi Village Industry, emphasised the need to take the issue on to the streets instead of organising seminars on it. He said much of the information that Mitrokhin could not reveal could be obtained if the government showed a political will. He further said the demand for an inquiry with diplomatic efforts should be kept on. Shri Balbir Punj, noted journalist, while initiating the discussion said the Indian Leftists never formulated any policy keeping in view the interest of India. Right from the freedom movement to the 1962 war with China, from the infamous Emergency in 1977 to the nuclear blasts by India, the Indian Leftist always adopted an anti-India stance.
