Impression about business through family did exist: Arun Jaitley

BANGALORE: A day after Congress rejected WikiLeaks claim about late Rajiv Gandhi, BJP leader Arun Jaitley today said the cables were "unequivocal in the direction" that anyone wanting to do business with India in the 1970s had to come through a particular family.

"These are contemporaneous cables which are giving the impressions that the American diplomats formed at that time. There can be a contention that this is or is not proof," he told reporters here.

He, however, said that there was certainly evidence of the fact that an impression did exist in New Delhi in the 1970s that if anyone wanted to do business with India, "you had to come through a particular family".

"Now the cables on both days as reported at least are unequivocal in that direction," said the BJP leader while replying to a question on Wikileaks claim that Gandhi may have been a middleman for a Swedish company trying to sell fighter aircraft to India before he became the Prime Minister.

Congress has rubbished reports based on WikiLeaks, asserting that the allegation against Rajiv Gandhi has no basis whatsoever.

Party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi had yesterday referred to the last line of the particular cable to emphasise there was no foundation to the charge and accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of "spreading lies and falsehoods".

The leaked secret cable claimed that Gandhi was the "main Indian negotiator" for a massive aircraft deal for which his "family" connections were seen as valuable.