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PM 'did not confirm' plot to kill Sonia

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has not confirmed that there was a plot by a 'fascist clique' to eliminate Congress president Sonia Gandhi nor did Congress leaders Arjun Singh and Pranab Mukherjee make any mention of it during their meeting with Vajpayee on Saturday, an official spokesman said yesterday.

''Since this is a serious matter of concern to the entire nation, the prime minister urges that nobody should politicise it in any way,'' the spokesman said while clarifying 'certain discrepancies' in Arjun Singh's account of the 'deliberations that took place on Saturday'.

Arjun Singh, at a media conference on Sunday morning, said Vajpayee had confirmed that he was aware of certain plots to assassinate Sonia.

The spokesman said that, a few weeks ago, intelligence agencies received certain information concerning the threat to Sonia. The government immediately passed on this information to her and advised her to be extra careful whenever she appeared in public.

The government offered to regularly interact with any representative nominated by her to constantly monitor the security arrangements. Sonia agreed to cooperate with the government agencies in this matter.

''At no point in the meeting, did Singh and Mukherjee make any mention of their knowledge of any 'fascist clique' that has hatched a plot to eliminate Mrs Gandhi. Nor did the prime minister confirm the plot by any such 'fascist clique'.''

The government has provided adequate security to Sonia, which has recently been stepped up. Any steps necessary to further strengthen the security arrangements would be taken in consultation with Sonia, the spokesman said.

However, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday endorsed the Congress demand to enhance Sonia's security.

BJP leader J P Mathur said that the government had already taken steps in this direction.

He said Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani had already issued instructions to Home Secretary Kamal Pande to take steps for beefing up Sonia's security in consultation with the security agencies.

At the same time, Mathur demanded that Vajpayee's security be beefed up.

Addressing the media yesterday, Arjun Singh said the prime minister has made certain commitments and ''we have to accept them''.

He parried questions on whether the plot had any international ramifications saying that he would not like to go into the issue at the moment.

He had also released a copy of the letter he had written to President K R Narayanan on May 8 drawing his attention to the conspiracy to assassinate Sonia.

UNI

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