Name your 'mole': PM dares Jaswant

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asked former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh to name the mole in the PMO during Narasimha Rao's regime, as alleged by him in his book, even as the senior BJP leader refused to divulge the name in his reply to a debate on this issue in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

"If you don't name him (the mole), let the country draw its own conclusions," said the PM in his concluding remarks following the BJP leader's reply.

His remarks, which came at the end of over two-hour long acrimonious debate, sparked protests from the Opposition benches, leading to half-hour adjournment.

The Opposition leaders demanded that the former external affairs minister should be given a chance to reply to the PM's statement. They, however, relented on it after the House reassembled.

In over an hour-long statement earlier, Jaswant had failed to name the mole saying that the note he had sent to the PM was explicit about it.

The PM asked him to name the 'mole' in the PMO who 'leaked' nuclear secrets to the US. "The honourable member should answer the simple question: Who is the mole and why is he shying away from that?" asked the PM saying that the answer was all the more necessary as Jaswant had, in an interview to a television channel, implied that there could be a mole in the present PMO as well.

In the midst of heated exchanges between the Treasury and Opposition benches, Jaswant said he was trying to establish the centrality of the US efforts to "control, curb and put in tight wrap India's nuclear programme".

Referring to the PMO's charge that the letter sent to the PM by Jaswant did not have any letter head or signature, the BJP leader said that intelligence sources do not give out information "by way of letterhead or signature".