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NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan continued to be the prime target of the Congress attack as it heaped yet another charge of theft of its entire advertisment campaign by his ministry even while berating him further for equating Sonia Gandhi with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

"All our advertisement campaign was found lying spread on the table of an Officer-on-Special Duty of the I&B Ministry" and "when we went to give an advertisement to The Times of India, we found the BJP was ready with replies," Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal said.

He said the Congress was shocked at the ruling BJP marshalling the government means to procure the Congress campaign from the advertising agencies and said it was against ethics and democracy. "We are not stealing their advertisements," he said while pointing out that the government agencies would serve the national interest better if they kept tabs on the ISI instead of snooping on the Congress.

MONICAJI: Taking strong exception to Mahajan saying he did not equate "Soniaji with Monicaji," Sibal said the extraordinary respect he seems to have for Ms Monica Lewinsky only "betrays a singularly perverted bent of mind." That is why, Sibal said, Mahajan refuses to withdraw or deny that he had said "if we are so keen on having a foreigner as PM, why not have Tony Blair or Bill Clinton o even Monica Lewinsky."

When Sibal tried to read out from what he claimed much more damaging in the Hindustan Times correspondent's report that the newspaper did not publish, the journalists protested and wanted to know how can he get hold of the correspondent's original report and whether he also did not all in the same category of Mahajan who had allegedly got hold of fax messages of the correspondent to buttress his own case.

Sibal, however, stood ground, asserting that "I asked for the copy" from the newspaper since he was concerned at the Minister pressuring the Fourth Estate and stooping low to steal what was an inter-office memo sent by the Hindustan Times correspondent to his Executive Editor.

A section of the Media also confronted Sibal for finding fault with Mahajan showing respect to Lewinsky by adding "ji" to her name, but Sibal did not yield: "If you think Monicaji is a spiritual leader of yours, stand by your belief." He, however, quickly added: "We have difference of opinion. The world know what Monica Lewinsky is."

OPINION POLLS: Sibal, however, found the Press becoming more and more hostile towards him when he tried to criticise the Press for publishing opinion polls, allegedly manipulated by the Same Mahajan's "unconventional actions department", without verifying and without disclosing the basic material on which these polls were based. "You judge us every day; I have also right to judge you," Sibal shot back when told that he was levelling unwarranted charges on the Press.

Let the data be available with public institutions or with the Election Commission for scrutiny about authenticity of these opinion polls as to which constituencies covered, who paid for it and was the agency conducting the polls had anything to do with polls also conducted for Pramod Mahajan, Sibal said.

"The Congress would like to know why opinion polls that show the Congress in favourable light are somehow not given the same prominence as opinion polls that show BJP in an allegedly favourable electoral position," Sibal said in a statement circulated at his Press briefing.

Asked about the authenticity of the Opinion Polls, BJP spokesman General Secretary K N Govindacharya said different results only showed that those gathering the data were "confused" with regard to the people's minds. He said the BJP does not depend on such polls since "We are also in touch with the people and as such confident of the National Democratic Alliance getting majority in the north as well as in the south."

ADVERTISEMENT COMPLAINT: Meanwhile, BJP Vice-President K Jana Krishnamurthi, on Tuesday moved an application before the Election Commission, protesting against advertisements appearing in the Press in the name of Communalism Combat and wondered whether "benami" advertisements defied the code of conduct.

"The very fact that a person or a party does not want to reveal the name openly and hide himself as a sponsor goes to show that he does not want to own the responsibility for such advertisements or to face consequence for his act," Krishnamurthi's letter said, while pointing out that the advertisements were full of insinuations and personal attack on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He wondered why the Election Commission did not take suo motto notice of such advertisements.

The cat was, however, out of the bag as the sponsors appeared certainly from the Congress as otherwise Kapil Sibal had no reason to criticise the BJP for trying to gag the publication of advertisements issued "issued in public interest and in the interest of secularism." It shows their mindset and double standard as they had no problem when the advertisements critical to the Congress were being issued in the name of Lok Abhiyan, whose address turned out to be the address of a Delhi BJP MP, Vijay Goyal.

RSS & MAHATMA'S MURDER: Meanwhile, in defence of its attack on the RSS for its role in Gandhi's assassination, the Congress also released a letter that Sardar Patel had written to then RSS chief Golwalkar on September 11 1948 to explain why the Government had clamped a ban on the RSS activities.

The letter says RSS was certainly praise-worthy for the services rendered to the Hindu society, "but the objectionable part arose when they burning with revenge, began attacking Mussalmans."

"All their speeches wre full communal poison. It was not necessary to spread poison and entuse the Hindus and organise for their protection. As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the valuable life of Gandhiji," the letter said.

It points out how "RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji's death" making it inevitable for the government to take action against the RSS. Sibal said these are the words and certificate of the same Sardar Patel whom the BJP does not cease to quote. The Congress was only echoing his expression and his concern at the poison of communalism that BJP, RSS and their associate outfits continue to spread, he added. END.