NEW DELHI, July 19, Reuter: Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi sacked his leading critic in the ruling Congress Party today in a bid to stifle a widening revolt in the party and government.

He expelled former Finance and Defense Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh, the best known Congress rebel and focus of rebel sentiment in the Party, in the latest act of a political drama gripping Delhi.

An official announcement said Singh was dismissed for antiparty activities by the ex-Minister said it was for demanding legal action against the brother of a close friend of Gandhi on corruption charges.

“There’s only one action that I have done that could have triggered off my expulsion,” Singh told reporters. “If this is antiparty activity in the minds of some, to my mind, it’s a pro country activity”.

“I’ll continue to pursue the issues I have raised,” he added. He declined to say whether he would resign from the Rajya Sabha, India’s Upper House of Parliament.

Singh’s was the seventh prominent political head to roll since Wednesday as Gandhi continued a fight back against dissidents opposing his leadership. Most victims have been former minister of former confidants of the Prime Minister.

Singh and three other prominent party dissidents have been expelled for “antiparty activities”. In addition, two ministers and an MP resigned their posts.

Singh, whose main political activity has been a single-minded campaign against political corruption, said his expulsion appeared due to his demand for action against Ajitabh Bachhan, brother of a Amitabh Bachhan, India’s highest paid film star who has been a close confidant of the Prime Minister.

He wrote to Gandhi yesterday demanding action against Ajitabh after the Indian Express published what the newspaper said was a photocopy ofa document showing that he owned property in Switzerland, which is illegal ‘under Indian law.

Singh was hurriedly switched in January from the Finance Ministry, where he ordered controversial tax raids on big businesses, at the height of an investigation into illegal overseas currency holdings by prominent Indians.

He was then forced to resign from the Defense Ministry after unearthing kickback scandals in major military purchases of West German submarines and Swedish guns.

Article extracted from this publication >>  July 24, 1987