Mole not revealed: Manmohan

Jaswant had earlier claimed he would reveal the name only to the prime minister

The controversy over the "US mole" in the Narasimha Rao PMO just keeps getting more complicated. Jaswant Singh, the man who alleged he knows of a mole in the then PMO, has not told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who it is. He had earlier claimed he would reveal the name only to the Prime Minister.

"I would like to clarify that no such name has been shared with the prime minister," said Sanjay Baru, media manager to the PM.

Baru said Jaswant Singh's letter to the prime minister did not reveal anything more than what he had already told the media.

He read out from a letter The prime minister had written to Jaswant Singh, "I received your letter of July 28 regarding an informant in the PMO in the mid 1990s. I find that a copy of the letter has also been published in the latest issue of India Today."

Baru said the prime minister in his letter to Jaswant Singh said the document which the former Union minister had sent "is not the original document".

"It has no signature or letter head. The alleged informant is not named nor is there any confirmation the person was from the PMO," the prime minister wrote. "If you (Jaswant Singh) have any further information in this regard, you may wish to disclose it to the public," he continued.

"I am, however, surprised the material sent by you was in your possession when you were a member of the Union Council of Ministers and yet you did not share it with my predecessor," he said.

Jaswant Singh made the disclosure regarding a mole in the PMO in the run up to the release of his book A Call to Honour. The controversy has become a war of words between the prime minister who "dared" Jaswant Singh to come out with the name, and the former union minister who has not yet disclosed the name.

All members of Narasimha Rao's PMO came under the scanner over this leak, including the then principal secretary, late AN Verma.

What makes things worse for Jaswant Singh is that his BJP party colleagues appear to be as much in the dark regarding this as anybody else.

Other than the mole controversy, the book has revived humiliating memories of the handover of dreaded terrorists in the Kandahar hijacking case.

Jaswant Singh could probably find himself a lonely man. Considering the bitter review his book has suffered in the RSS' mouth piece "" Organiser "" he cannot expect much sympathy from his party colleagues.