Advani`s regret to Sonia on Swiss bank account issue

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) Senior Indian opposition leader
L K Advani has expressed "deep regret" to Congress President
Sonia Gandhi over an allegation in a report of a task force
appointed by his party that she and her late husband Rajiv had
accounts in Swiss banks.
While his apology was welcomed from the Congress party
and a dig from Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika
Soni, there were said to be murmurs within his own party the
could have avoided targeting the Gandhis on secret Swiss bank
accounts abroad.
"I am happy that you have denied the reports relating
to you and your family alluded to in the Task Force's Report
on Black Money.
"If these had been denied earlier the Task Force would
have taken your denial into account. Even so, I deeply regret
the distress caused to you," Advani had said in a brief letter
sent to Gandhi on Thursday.
He was replying to a letter written by Gandhi on
Wednesday in which she had denied the allegation made in the
Task Force report released on February 1, 2011.
The Congress welcomed Advani's letter but Information
and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni took a dig at the
Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) veteran, saying she thought he had
retired leaving the space for younger people like Sushma
Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.
"Mr Advani has been making a statement everyday on
different subjects... Probably, he is not having enough time
to study what he is saying," Soni said.
Notwithstanding Advani's regret, the BJP said that
Gandhi should have issued a rebuttal or a denial earlier as
several magazines and journals had made these allegations
against her family members from time to time.
"The letter of L K Advani to Sonia Gandhi expressing
regret over the pain caused to her on allegations of foreign
bank accounts in her family members names has to be seen in
the proper context," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told
reporters. (More) PTI