Seeking to put up a brave front on the "mole-in-the-PMO" controversy stirred up by its leader Jaswant Singh's book, the BJP today maintained that he had not used the word mole in his book but the "bottomline" was whether there was surveillance or not during the Narasimha Rao regime. "Show one instance where he (Jaswant Singh) has used the word mole in his book (Call to Honour: In Service of Emergent India). The media invented the mole," BJP senior leader M Vankaiah Naidu told reporters here.
But, Naidu said, the "bottomline" is "was there surveillance or not" and added, "Yes there was" as the party feels that because of US pressure, the nuclear test was stopped during the Narasimha Rao regime.
Even former President R Venkataraman had mentioned nuclear tests being stopped because of American pressure in his book, Naidu said.
He claimed that at that time, Manmohan Singh [Images], as finance minister in the Narasimha Rao government, had opposed India conducting nuclear test then and it had not been contradicted by the prime minister.
The National Democratic Alliance during its rule conducted the nuclear tests, he said.
"The word mole has not been used by Jaswant Singh. The word has been made an issue by others," Naidu said.
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