Quattrocchi

New Delhi, Feb. 23: As the Congress groped for an official response to Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi’s detention in Buenos Aires, the BJP quickly went on the offensive, declaring it would demand a statement from the government in Parliament on what it intended to do with the Italian businessman.

The Congress’s core committee held its weekly meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence.

Sources said the political implications of the “embarrassment” were discussed by the members, including Sonia Gandhi and her political secretary Ahmed Patel. But they would not term it a “setback”.

However, there was concern that the Samajwadi Party, the Congress’s principal adversary, could use the development as a stick to personally attack Sonia.

The party has already carried on a covert campaign insinuating that Sonia and Rahul Gandhi had a “personal agenda” in getting the Mulayam Singh Yadav government sacked.

There will be a discussion on its floor strategy over the weekend. A series of political meetings are expected at the “highest” level.

Late tonight, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “The Congress has always held the view that the process of law must be allowed to work itself out. It’s a matter between the prosecuting agency, the investigating agency, if there is one, the government and Quattrocchi.”

BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “We will certainly raise the issue in the House because we have serious apprehensions on whether he will be brought to India or not.”

Prasad said going by the government’s previous moves on Quattrocchi, the BJP was not hopeful of anything decisive this time too.