Press Briefing Tuesday, 22nd February 2011

Smt. Jayanti Natrajan addressed the media today.

Smt. Jayanti Natrajan said that today the Prime Minister has moved a motion, as you are all aware for the appointment of JPC in regard to the 2G spectrum issue. He has explained however that the issue is being investigated by several agencies and at several levels and also monitored by the Supreme Court. The Government has agreed to the formation of a JPC as it was unable to convince the Opposition to allow Parliament to function. Now that the Prime Minister has made the statement and the motion on the JPC will be moved in a few day’s time. We sincerely hope that this important Budget Session will function smoothly and all opposition parties will cooperate in this regard, So that the Budget Session in the Parliament can function in a productive and effective way.

On the issue of showing lenient action by the Court against the Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Smt. Natrajan said that I think due process of the law have been followed in the matter and whatever action that has been taken is in accordance to due process.

On the issue of Godhra incident, Smt. Natrajan said that we don’t comment upon a Court judgment. The judgment speaks for itself however I would like to say that in the post Godhra, this particular judgment deals specifically with the Godhra issue but post Godhra, the terrible communal tension, the rioting, the genocide, the atrocities of a particular section of the society, the violence and what we call state-sponsored genocide are all matter for which we hold and entire nation holds Mr. Narendra Modi and his government directly responsible. Those matters are still before the Supreme Court and we believe that with regard to the post Godhra incidence, worst ever incident of communal violence, Mr. Modi must account to the people of the nation.

On the question of JPC Smt. Natrajan said that we regret that Parliament did not function for 22 days during the Winter Session. We believe that Parliament is the most important instrument of our democratic polity. We regret that the Parliament was not allowed to function by the opposition parties during the entire Winter Session in this regard. We tried our best to convince the Opposition that the Parliament and the functioning of Parliament and debate in Parliament should not become a victim of political expediency but we failed to convince them.



Tom Vadakkan
Secretary, AICC