Press
Briefing Monday, 10th January 2011
Shri
Manish Tewari addressed the media today.
Shri Manish Tewari said that the political resolution of
Bhartiya Janata Party is nothing except the bundle of
unadulterated lies. It betrays their nervousness and its
correct place is in a political dust bin. The Bhartiya
Janata Party has forgot to explain to the nation as to
why individuals and organizations who have been
allegedly found involved in acts of terror enjoy their
sympathy, support and patronage. It seems obvious that
as the investigations into the terrorist attacks between
2006 and 2008 will grow more focused, it seems that the
nervousness of Bhartiya Janata Party and its leadership
will grow further. The BJP has not explained that the
childish remarks of its President that what the
Karnataka Chief Minister did was immoral and not
illegal. Even if we were to presume for a moment what
the BJP President is saying is correct, does this mean
that the BJP has formally officially forsaken morality
forever. The ghost of Bofors was again dragged out to be
splayed once again in 23 years for political gains. I
would like to remind the BJP, in the year 2002, is it
not the fact that the CBI Special Judge, who framed
charges against the accused, categorically recorded in
his order that there is no evidence to show that any
politician or defence personnel has received any
kickback. Is not a fact that on 2.4.2004 when the Delhi
High Court quashed the charge sheet? The Judge recorded
that the Learned Addl. Solicitor General who appeared
for the Union of India has very candidly and honestly
conceded that the CBI has no evidence against any
politician or defence personnel? Is it not a fact that
the limitation for filing an appeal from a High Court
order is 90 days? Those 90 days expired on 4.5.2004,
then why was an appeal not filed? The NDA continued in
office till 22.4.2004 and the reason why the appeal was
not filed, is after an order based on the concession of
its Law Officer, with what face would the government
have gone to the Supreme Court. Those are the facts. In
essence, this resolution sums up the inherent
contradiction between the utterances and the actions of
the BJP and as I started off by saying, its rightful
place is the political dustbin.
To a question on the reaction of the Congress party on
not only the resolutions passed by the BJP but mounting
of the frontal assault not only on Smt. Sonia Gandhi but
also on Prime Minister also both on 2-G and CWG scam,
Shri Tewari said insofar as 2-G matter is concerned, the
Telecommunications Minister, who has access to all the
material, has dealt with 2-G and for the sake of
brevity, I will not go into the very logical and
reasoned explanation which he has given to substantiate
that the revenue loss which accrued to the government is
zero but I would suffice by saying that there are three
aspects of it. The first is policy aspect of it. On the
policy aspect, the Minister has correctly said that the
policy decision did not result in any revenue loss.
Insofar as the procedural aspect of it is concerned,
that procedural aspect that whether there was any
procedural lapse in implementation of that policy, that
is being looked at by Justice Shivraj Patil Committee.
Insofar as any criminal culpability out of the
implementation of that policy is concerned, the Hon’ble
Supreme Court and the CBI are seized of the matter and
that is being investigated and if any criminal
culpability emerges, the government has made it clear ad
nausea that none of the guilty will be spared. So, I do
not understand as to how and why is the NDA or the BJP
beating the same old drum when each of these aspects has
already been dealt with by the government.
On the question of the reaction of the Congress Party on
the observation of the Hon’ble Supreme Court on the
cancelation of the telecom licences, Shri Tewari said
that I have not read the Supreme Court order and I am
not privy to the proceedings of what happened in the
Court, but suffice to say that even the
Telecommunication Minister has very candidly stated that
if at all there have been any violations of the
licensing conditions, those violations would be dealt
with and insofar as the recalcitrance in the roll-out of
the net-work is concerned, already penalty has been
collected from the erring operators. If I remember, he
said that 45% i.e. Rs. 73,000 Crores has been collected
out of Rs. 270 crores that accrues. So therefore, it
goes to show that the government has been proactive on
it.
On the reaction of the Congress party on the statement
of Indresh Kumar that he does not know Dayanand Pandeya
and Col. Purohit’s men, in light of the fact that the
Haryana police has once claimed that Mr. Nagori was
involved in the blast of Samjhauta Express, Shri Tewari
said that since the matter is under investigation, it
would not be appropriate to comment on it. But I would
like to say that Swamy Assemanand’s statement has been
recorded before a Magistrate under section 164 Cr.P.C.
which has the evidentiary value. We should allow the
investigating agency to do their work.
On further reaction of the Congress party on the
statement of Indresh that Col. Purohit and Dayanand
Pandey are planted by the government, Shri Tewari said
that this question should be put either to Col. Purohit
or Dayanand Pandeya.
On another related question over the statement of Mohan
Bhagwat that their organization does not believe in all
violent elements and all the elements who are indicted
now have either left the organization of their own or
pushed out, Shri Tewari that without any offence and
using this strictly as a metaphor, rather than the rats
deserting the ship, it seems to be that the ship is
deserting the rats.
On another question of the disruption of Shri Rahul
Gandhi’s visit to UP, Shri Tewari said that the
elections in 2012 will prove the testimony of the
popularity of the Congress party and its leadership in
UP. Insofar as the accusations of corruption is
concerned, it seems that Congress-led UPA is an alliance
or the Congress party is the only political party, that
even before the perception of corruption, the Congress
party has acted and right from the case of Shri Natwar
Singh, whenever there has been any such instance, the
Congress party has come forward and directed them to
resign and allow the law to take its own course. Has any
other political party dared to act in a way the Congress
party acts? The Congress party has set an example before
the nation.
On another question on the order of ITAT on Bofors
issue, Shri Tewari said in a sense by caveating my
response by saying that we hold no brief for anybody
insofar as tax order is concerned. But allow me to point
out that on four occasions between 1990 and 1998, the
same assessment order on the same facts was quashed by
the CIT appeals. We have no brief for anybody who was an
appellant in tax order. Shri Tewari has further said
that BJP has not been able to explain that between 1987
and 2010, in the last 23 years, they have carried out a
campaign of calumny and invando against the Congress
party and its leadership and in these 23 years, whenever
there has been a judicial order, that judicial order has
said that there is no evidence. The CBI has been able to
present no evidence and especially so between 1998 and
2004 when for 6 years there was NDA government. It is
high time that the BJP learnt that the way of doing
politics is not on the sticks of untruth and invando.
To another question on the statement of the
Telecommunication Minister that there is no loss to the
government in the matter of allotment of 2-G spectrum,
Shri Tewari quoted the excerpts from the report of the
CAG, where it says on 4th page of its report, each such
model would be based upon on certain assumption which
may not necessarily be obtained when the government
decides on the price of a scarce national asset as there
is no fool proof market discovery mechanism at any point
of time. Each set of assumption underlying the economic
models would be open to questions and be disputed. For
this reason, we have only attempted to arrive at a
presumptive value in this report. Shri Tewari further
said that the CAG has taken a benchmark of Estel case in
arriving at presumptive loss, and on page 37 of their
report, the CAG says that Estel is the defaulting
company. Then how a constitutional body like CAG can
take a benchmark of a defaulting company in arriving at
the presumptive loss in the matter? Shri Tewari further
added that Justice Patil’s committee has been set up to
look into the implementation of the policy whether the
policy of first-come-first serve, which emanated out of
the universal access service which came into being in
2003, was followed or not. If at all there is any
criminal culpability, CBI is looking into in. Shri
Tewari further said that there is no hurry to rubbish
the CAG report. We wanted to present all the facts on
the floor of the House and the opposition did not allow
the parliament to function so that there could be
discussion on the issue. They should allow the public
discussion to take place.
In another related question when there was no loss to
the government then why was Mr. Raja removed, Shri
Tewari said that there are various aspects in the CAG
report but insofar as the formula for calculating or
indexing something called
presumptive/mythical/notional/non-existent loss is
concerned, I do not think any sane or sensible person
can agree to that. Shri Tewari further added that
insofar as Mr. Raja’s resignation is concerned, while
owning up moral responsibility he had resigned from the
government.
Tom Vadakkan
Secretary, AICC
