The BJP had on Thursday asked the Prime Minister to “introspect” on whether he was “misled” or he “deliberately” allowed himself to be misled on the appointment of P.J. Thomas as CVC. In both cases, the party had demanded “accountability to be fixed”.
Sources said with Ms Swaraj’s statement of Friday, a majority section within the party was of the view that she had diluted the BJP’s attack on the government and the PM on why P.J. Thomas was appointed when there was an ongoing criminal case against him. Incidentally, it was Ms Swaraj, as a member of the panel headed by the PM to select the CVC, who had given a dissent note on Mr Thomas’ appointment. The BJP had even boycotted Mr Thomas’ oath-taking ceremony.
Reacting to the PM’s statement, BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “We will wait for the Prime Minister’s structured response in Parliament on the issue. Just a casual comment on owning responsibility is not enough. There should also be determination of this responsibility.”
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Ajit Singh’s kin sentenced for deal with Iran
Lalit K. Jha
Washington
March 4: Vikramaditya Singh, son-in-law of RLD leader Ajit Singh, has been sentenced to six months of home confinement by a US court and now faces deportation after he was caught in a federal sting operation selling military grade microwave radios to Iran.
Mr Singh(34), a Arizona-based electronics dealer, was targeted by undercover agents of US homeland security in Philadelphia as a follow-up to a sting involving Iranian arms broker Amir Ardebili. Reacting to the sentence, sources close to Rashtriya Lok Dal supremo Ajit Singh said in New Delhi on Friday that Mr Vikramaditya Singh was not aware of end user agreement needed to be signed before the selling of equipment in question. Mr Singh is the owner of Orion Telecom Networks in Delaware. District chief judge Gregory M. Sleet sentenced Mr Singh of Fountain Hills, Arizona, to three years’ probation, including six months’ home confinement, and a $100,000 fine for exporting items he believed were destined to Iran. The sentence means Mr Singh is likely to be deported in 2011. However, Singh’s sentencing is lenient than requested for by either his attorney or the federal prosecutors. Singh’s lawyer, Danny C. Onorato, sought a one-year term and asked US district judge Gregory M. Sleet to consider his client’s otherwise exemplary life. —PTI