``We have no objection to somebody running a trust to promote art and culture in the country. But why use government land and money for instituting a private trust? A public trust should be controlled by the Government and if it was a private one, trustees should return the Government land and money,'' said BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu.He also demanded immediate action by the Government to retrieve the public property of such enormous value from the trustees.

The original deed of the trust was surreptitiously amended in 1995 when Sonia Gandhi was president of the trust, to convert it into a private trust with control vested in her. Besides, the amendments also enabled her to become its lifepresident and the other trustees to become life trustees.In addition, the President of India's power to appoint a committee to look after the activities of the trust was also done away with, he said.

Naidu said the BJP government had written several letters to the trust seeking details but none of the letters was answered. The IGNCAC is one of the three institutions Sonia Gandhi has taken control of. The other two are the Nehru Memorial Library and the Jawahar Bhavan, land for which had been allocated to house the AICC headquarters.

The party has lodged an official protest with the Election Commission today about the brutal killing of Pannalal Oswal, the BJP candidate from Dhubri constituency in Assam, by ULFA extremists. Oswal is the second BJP candidate to have been killed during electioneering.