“He (Gandhi) has issued a clarification. There is no need to offer further comments,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
A BJP office-bearer said there is no need for the party to be drawn into the controversy involving a sensitive issue like defence deals.
“Let’s see how the issue plays out. As of now, we don’t think that there is a need to join the issue,” an office-bearer said when asked about the attack by leaders of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress on the government over the issue.
Gandhi was at the centre of a controversy over allegations by Swaraj Abhiyan that he had leaked defence secrets to middleman Verma and arms manufacturers after being “honey trapped”, a charge he stoutly denied.
He had said in press conference yesterday that he last met Verma when he was a post graduate student in London at the age of 22 years.
“I am going to turn 37 now. I have never met him since I entered public life in 2004. The only reason why I even know of him is because his parents were members of Parliament and was a respected family. I knew them as many other leaders knew them,” he had said.
PTI