On the United Progressive Alliance's [ Images ] regime's performance in Parliament and her relations with Congress President Sonia Gandhi [ Images ], the BJP leader said, "Our statement about dynastic politics in the Congress was not against Mrs Gandhi per se. It was against the Congress and how it was perpetuating dynasty. A party, which was part of the freedom struggle...."

Asked about her equations with Gandhi, against whom she unsuccessfully contested in Bellary in 1999, Swaraj said, "I have no personal enmity with her. But I am still against a foreigner becoming Prime Minister. To oppose it was my duty to the nation. I still stand by it and I am proud of it."

She maintained that her gesture of walking up to Gandhi recently in the Lok Sabha to enquire about her mother's health was out of "courtesy".

Swaraj was critical of the Congress-led government, especially Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's [ Images ] statement that 37 per cent of the population was below poverty line and it was not possible to distribute free grains to all the poor.

"If the government cannot distribute foodgrains then why are they talking about a food security bill? As for how to distribute the foodgrains, they can learn from the Chhattisgarh government. The rations are distributed on the seventh of every month and MLAs and public servants ensure it is done smoothly and fairly," Swaraj said.

On the issue of illegal mining and her support to the Reddy brothers, she said her party's stand was very clear that export of iron ore should be "totally banned" and value addition to it should be done within the country.

"I stood by the Bellary brothers as when I went to Bellary to contest against Sonia Gandhi, the constituency was a Congress bastion. The party had won the seat 12 times. I breached their fortress. The Bellary brothers later helped BJP not only win the Lok Sabha constituency but also nine of the ten vidhan sabha seats there," she said.

"My blessings to them are only for their political contribution. In the last 11 years, I have not taken even 11 paise from them. Not even a single paisa was contributed from Bellary to me. Hence when the party asked me to talk to them to save our government in Karnataka [ Images ], I used these relations with them," she added.

On the recent controversy about selection of a new CVC, Swaraj said she had asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram [ Images ] to choose any of the other two members in the three-member panel but they were adamant on Telecom Secretary P J Thomas.

"I said I am not blacklisting him. You can reward him with some other post but post of CVC should go to some untainted officer. I told them that you have chosen the panel, give me the liberty to choose the CVC. Then I suggested we defer the meeting and enlarge the panel but they said it had to be done today," Swaraj said.