New Delhi:
Senior BJP leader LK Advani may have expressed regret to Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the BJP's charge that Sonia and her family members had foreign bank accounts, but that is his personal view, a member of the party's task force that came up with the report has said.
Mahesh Jethmalani, who was part of the BJP's task force, said that he stands by the report and the views expressed by Advani were his own.
"The task force stands by its report. No, I don't support that, that's his personal view. I'm not saying that I support that at all. That's his graciousness, that's his statesmanship .Mr Advani doesn't seem to say that he doesn't stand by the task forces report. All he says is that if the allegations in the task force report hurt you I'm sorry", said Jethmalani.
LK Advani had earlier, at several public meetings, asked Sonia Gandhi to come clean on foreign accounts. Sonia wrote back to him on February 15 saying neither she nor her family had any foreign accounts. Sonia wrote:
'...This so-called report contains reckless and baseless allegations against me and my family, including my late husband and my mother. These lies, energetically disseminated from time to time by sections of the media and interested parties have so far been treated by me with the contempt they deserve... I am surprised and disappointed to find a leader of your stature... endorsing such scurrilous and malicious fabrications...'
Advani's regret letter was welcomed by the Congress but it reportedly deeply upset his own party.
Sources within the BJP told NDTV that a large section of the party is unhappy because right from the beginning several senior leaders, including Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, were opposed to attacking the Gandhi family on the black money issue. The worry in the BJP now is how the party is going to continue its protest on the issue.
NDTV has also learnt that several leaders are now saying the black money report was a party document and Advani shouldn't have discussed Sonia's letter with party leaders.
BJP had appointed the task force on unravelling the amount of black money stashed by Indians in foreign banks and ways to bring it back.
The four-member task force comprising S Gurumurthy, former IB director Ajit Doval, Professor R Vadiyanathan and advocate Mahesh Jethmalani has put the figure of money stashed in safe havens to be Rs 25 lakh crore.
On February 1, NDA leaders had released a booklet 'Indian Black Money Abroad in Secret Banks and Tax Havens', the second report of the task force appointed by the BJP. The report said that Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were among Indians who held Swiss bank accounts.