No truth in Jaswant's assertions: Chaturvedi

Cong leader Bhuvnesh Chaturvedi, rubbished Jaswant Singh's claims about an American mole operating in the PMO.

Congress leader Bhuvnesh Chaturvedi on Saturday rubbished former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh's claims about an American mole operating in the office of Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, terming them "a bunch of lies" timed to promote his autobiography.

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The former minister of state in the PMO, referring to published extracts of Singh's book and his interview to a magazine this week, said the "disclosures" were meant to create an impression that the book contained secrets that were not known even then.

This included Singh's assertion that Rao had decided to go in for nuclear tests, but abandoned the idea because the US put pressure on him after the information was leaked to American authorities by someone in his office.

Chaturvedi, who was minister in the PMO then, called the suggestion a "figment of Singh's imagination".

Singh, in his interview, had said he had known a decade ago that "somebody in the PMO was giving information about India's nuclear programme to the US", but kept quiet to avoid sensationalising the issue. He said he had for evidence a letter that gave "graphic details".

Chaturvedi said that there were only three persons in the PMO privy to all decisions and discussions taking place there. He claimed he had free access to the Prime Minister, who discussed practically every political issue with him before taking any decision.

"In a majority of the cases, opinions expressed by me were accepted by the Prime Minister."