Press Briefing Monday, 27 Apr 2009

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi addressed the media today.

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi said that it seems as though Mr. Advani has already been indirectly shown the door within his own party and is a mere ‘Mukhota’ - a convenient face and mask for Mr. Modi. That mask is obviously needed because within the NDA itself, Mr. Modi may not have immediate acceptability. He added that while Mr. Advani may not have the acceptability within the country, at least within the NDA he is perceived to be more acceptable than Mr. Modi. Dr. Abhishek Singhvi added that the real question was whether Advani, the ‘Majboor neta’ was also a neta who is full of fear because he is relying on the crutches of Mr. Modi and therefore has to reassure Mr. Modi that he shall be the future Prime Minister-in-waiting.

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi further said that it was extremely significant that for the first time in the history of India, all cases dealing with the Gujarat episode in Godhra and its aftermath have been transferred out of the State and a Special Investigating Team (SIT) was created to probe the role of the chief constitutional functionary of that State i.e. Narendra Modi. Dr. Singhvi asked whether there could not be a bigger constitutional slap in the face of constitutional functionary. He added that the Congress Party was confident that Mr. Modi will neither be apologetic nor he will begin to feel any amount of regret even after this. This is Mr. Modi’s and BJP’s true ‘chal, charitra and chehra’.

To a question Dr. Abhishek Singhvi said that Mr. Modi should have resigned seven years ago or at least have felt apologetic or regretful. But Mr. Modi continues to say in front of the media that there is nothing to be apologetic about. Clearly, Mr. Modi’s greed for power and his qualifications in misleading the general public far exceed any moral sense of responsibility.

On a question relating to the Tamilian crisis in Sri Lanka, Dr. Abhishek Singhvi one needs to give credit firstly to the Sri Lankan Government which has reacted with sensitivity and positively to the collective world opinion in which India played a leading role. He reminded that it was very important for sovereign nations to exercise their sovereignty in the context of international collective opinion which has been done and so one need not be unnecessarily critical where action has been taken.

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi said that the Congress-led UPA Government and the DMK which is an inalienable part of the UPA also deserved credit which has done everything within the limits of the constitution and international law to ensure maximum protection and rehabilitative measures for innocent, non-combative civilian Tamils. No other Government could have done anything remotely resembling what has been done by the UPA.

On the question of Sri Lanka not calling for a ceasefire yet, Dr. Abhishek Singhvi further said that it was wrong to assume that Sri Lanka is a subordinate Mohalla or district within India’s jurisdiction. Being a sovereign friendly country, Sri Lanka has to be dealt with according to the rules of international relations. Dr. Abhishek Singhvi added that India or Jayalalitha could not go around calling for the creation of a separate country within a neighboring sovereign country. He reminded that if the same advice was given to India, India would certainly not appreciate it and therefore one can only persuade, request and bring international collective pressure on Sri Lanka.




(Tom Vadakkan)

Secretary, AICC