New Delhi, Feb 05: The Bharatiya Janata Party today warned the Congress that it would face a big embarrassment if former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's exoneration of bribery charges in the Bofors case by the Delhi High Court was made an election issue. The Congress still has to do a lot of explaining on the role of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi, a family friend of Late Rajiv Gandhi in the scandal, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.
He was reacting to the Congress decision that it would make the yesterday's Delhi High Court judgement on the Bofors case an election issue.
Malhotra said that the embarrassment for the congress would be manifold as those who cried 'foul' 17 years ago were the ''so-called secular brigade'' and are now on the Congress side.
He said that it was Former Prime Minister V P Singh who kicked up the issue being a defence minister in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet. Now he is a proclaimed ''friend, philosopher and guide'' of the Congress-led alliance, he added.

The Bofors case, Malhotra said, was not a closed chapter as the court had stated that the case would go on.
The Congress has the task of explaining to the people the role of Quattrochi in the Bofors case and his close association with the Rajiv Gandhi family, he added.
He was evading court and the law on one pretext or the other, Malhotra said.
Leaders like Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and parties such as the CPI, the CPI-M and the DMK prominently made allegations in the Bofors kickback.
It was Congress chief spokesman S Jaipal Reddy who spearheaded the attack against Late Rajiv Gandhi at that point of time, Malhotra said.
Bureau Report