Press Briefing Tuesday, 9th August 2011

Shri Manish Tewari addressed the media today.

Shri Manish Tewari said the situation in Gujarat especially with regard to the petition which Mr. Sanjeev Bhatt has filed in the Hon'ble Supreme Court, I think; is very peculiar and extraordinary to some extent. The correspondence which Mr. Sanjeev Bhatt has put on record ostensibly points to a very-very serious conflict of interest between the lawyers especially the Law Officers of the Gujarat government and their responsibility towards prosecuting cases which can ensure that justice is done in Gujarat. You have a situation whereby an Additional Advocate General of State is appearing for the government of Gujarat. At the same point in time he is drafting, micro managing the legal strategy of the accused. On one hand he is drafting the petition for the state of Gujarat; on the other hand he is drafting the reply of the accused and sharing it with the lawyers of the accused. The reports of the Special Investigating Team which has been constituted by the Hon'ble Supreme Court and which were either legally or otherwise given to the Additional Advocate General to study have been shared with the lawyers for the accused. So, here you have SIT reports which perhaps were illegally given to the Gujarat government by some insider in the SIT. That itself is a crime but what possibly is a bigger offence is that they are being shared with the lawyers of the accused. The second set of allegation is very interesting. It is how the political management of the 'save-Modi-campaign' has been outsourced to a gentleman in Chennai called Mr. Gurumurthy. Mr. Gurumurthy orchestrates the political strategy. It goes from Chennai to Gandhi Nagar and from Gandhi Nagar when it is approved, the BJP central leadership starts jumping the queue to save the Gujarat Chief Minister. The third set of allegations pertains to possibly an approach which ostensibly and allegedly is sought to be made to none less than the Special investigating Team. Now under these circumstances, when there is a complete collusion of the State of Gujarat with the lawyers of the accused, justice under no circumstances can be done. That is why we demand that all the Gujarat riot related cases should immediately be transferred out of the state because only those cases which have been transferred out of the state and have been prosecuted either in Maharashtra or some other state have fructified into convictions. Secondly, we do hope that the Hon'ble Supreme Court will take very serious note of this miscarriage of justice, obstruction of legal proceedings which has been done by the state of Gujarat. Thirdly, we do hope that the victimization and the persecution of Mr. Sanjeev Bhatt which is being carried out directly at the instance of the highest constitutional office, highest elected office in Gujarat that would also be taken cognizance of by the Court and he would be afforded appropriate protection.

On another question on the reaction of the Congress party over expenditure of over Rs. 20 crore by Ms. Mayawati government on renovation, Shri Tewari said I think, first of all, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh needs to answer audit objections whereby Rs. 1998 crores has been allegedly misused in the erection of statues. So, therefore, the entire conduct of the UP government has been a story of prolificacy and I think at the appropriate time the people of Uttar Pradesh will take all this into consideration when they decide as to who to bring in next time.

To a question on the reaction of the Congress party over the statement of Shri Arun Jaitley asking for the resignation of the Prime Minister and also of the Delhi Chief Minister in the wake of CAG report on CWG in reference to a letter issued from PMO office, Shri Tewari said we have established it beyond an iota of doubt that it was the NDA government who was responsible for creating the architecture which led to the appointment of Indian Olympic Association President as the Chairperson of the Organizing Committee. The NDA government did not stop at that. In fact if you peruse the host city contract, even the powers of arbitration on the contract were taken away from the Indian courts and handed over to the courts in England and if I am not mistaken Mr. Arun Jaitley was the Law Minister of India at that relevant point in time. So, therefore, the NDA has a lot to answer for in terms of creating that structure and architecture which ultimately created a fate-accompli with regard to appointment of the IOA President as the Chairperson of the Organizing Committee and if you read one of the leading newspapers today, they have brought out that Mr. Kalmadi's greatest supporter was none other than Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, then Deputy Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha.

To another question over the involvement of other senior congress leaders, Shri Tewari said I have not perused those reports. Therefore, I would not be in a position to comment on it but would like to reiterate that the CAG reports are not gospel. The CAG reports are ultimately subject to an independent verification by the Public Accounts Committee and if we start considering the CAG reports to be gospel as pointed out in the House, there would possibly not be a single Chief Minister who would be left in this country.

On the on-going Palmolein case in High Court of Kerala, Shri Tewari said I have addressed this issue extensively yesterday. I have been informed that over the last two decades, a number of enquiries were conducted. The Chief Minister of Kerala neither figured by designation or by name in any of those enquiries. Subsequently, the last Left Democratic Front government decided to institute a fresh enquiry. That fresh enquiry, I am led to believe, also exonerates the Chief Minister. It is just that the court has not accepted the final report and they want some further investigation and an investigation or an enquiry by no stretch of jurisprudence is an indictment under any circumstances. So, therefore, if the opposition is asking for the resignation, the opposition is tilting at windmills.

To another question as to whether the petrol prices will be brought down in the wake of price of crude oil declining in the international market, Shri Tewari said the question is how much impact the same will leave on the Indian basket.

On the question of the reaction of the Congress party over the points raised by Mr. Yashwant Sinha in Lok Sabha, Shri Tewari said I think to answer your specific question as to whether the UPA government was obligated to follow the policies of the NDA. In this particular context, unfortunately, the answer is 'Yes' because I tell you why - presuming that the UPA government had decided to go against the host-city contract which stipulated that the games would be organized by the Commonwealth Games Federation of India which in this particular instance was the IOA and the IOA by virtue of that second protocol passed a resolution appointing Shri Suresh Kalmadi as Chairman of the Organizing Committee. If the UPA government would have taken a decision to the contrary, it would have resulted in arbitration and the arbitration would have taken place not in India but it would have taken place under English Law in England because the NDA government had conceded those rights to be under the English law and eventually then the charge against the UPA government would have been at that point of time, Look, we brought the games and you are trying to sabotage.

With regard to the second query as to why Mr. Kalmadi was given Lok Sabha ticket in 2009, Shri Tewari said I entirely agree, Yes, the Congress party did ask Mr. Kalmadi to stand from Pune but that does not mean that we absolve or we condone any indiscretion and that is why the law is having its course and ultimately everybody will have the day in the court and the prosecution will have its chance in the court.   
 

(Tom Vadakkan)
Secretary, AICC