REVELATIONS that Soviet spies bribed their way into the corridors of power in Indira Gandhi’s India have caused a stir on the sub-continent after they were published in The Times on Saturday.

Arguments are raging in newspapers and on television over the veracity of the claims made in the second volume of The Mitrokhin Archive, which is being serialised in The Times. Over two chapters, the book charts how the former Soviet secret service bribed Indian diplomats and politicians. It alleges that Mrs Gandhi’s Congress party was partly funded by the KGB, which is said to have found that the “entire country was for sale”.

India’s opposition Bharatiya Janata Party was swift to condemn the ruling Congress party, saying the the country was not safe in the hands of its politicians. “It is a very serious issue. The Congress and the Communists have been accused of taking money from the KGB. Both, particularly the Congress, which is at the helm of affairs, owes an explanation to the country,” Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the BJP vice-president, said.

The Congress party flatly denied the book’s claims. “This is pure sensationalism, not even remotely based on facts or records,” Abhishek Singhvi, the Congress spokesperson, said.

He said that The Mitrokhin Archive was not based on official records, but relied instead on papers “stolen” by a person who defected to the West in 1992. “They are not official records. Almost everyone has died. There is no way of checking.”

Kuldip Nayar, a veteran journalist who has exhaustively chronicled that era, said: “I can’t talk of the media being on the take but it was well known then that suitcases of money used to change hands.”

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