Press Briefing
Thursday, 24th March 2011
Shri Abhishek Singhvi addressed the media
today.
Shri Abhishek Singhvi said it is time the BJP
and other sections of the opposition introspect.
Are they irresponsible opposition or are they
indulging in competitive politics within
themselves as far as politics and party are
concerned and sensationalism as far as public is
concerned. Please see in the last few days, you
have had a demand for a statement from the Prime
Minister. You have had a huge amount of
‘hulla-gulla’ on something like wikiLeaks. You
have had demand for privileges and, of course,
you have had huge disruption of parliament. I am
proving to you how irresponsible opposition – an
opposition which is trying to score points
within itself. It is individual person based
competitive politics. On these issues, which
they think are important, we don’t believe the
public thinks, the country thinks. They are not
‘aam-aadmi’ issues, they are not healing touch
issues, and they are not development issues. But
on these issues, they have disrupted parliament,
they have indulged in shouting and slanging
matches, they have tried to make the media all
pervasive on this issue and they have even tried
to postpone important discussions like the
Finance Bill. As against this, has the
opposition ever seriously thought of raising or
discussing the plight of Indians stranded in
Tunisia, Libya, Egypt or the several
constructive measures being done by the
government not only for their safe return but
for future rehabilitation. Yes, they may have
paid lip service to this but have they really
gone into and discussed the aspects of Japanese
Tsunami, have they gone into details with the
same degree of fervor and passion regarding the
Finance Bill. This is because this is not
balanced politics. They are not interested in
balanced politics, not in responsible politics,
not in ‘aam-aadmi’ or priority politics, not in
necessary politics or politics to do with public
service. In fact, they are interested -
especially the leaders of the houses of the
opposition – in the lower and the upper House –
are interested in scoring competitive points
amidst and against each other. Each wants to
outshine the others. Each wants to out-perform
the other and therefore, while they take up
issues which involves long speeches, the subject
matter of those speeches is not necessarily that
which moves the ‘aam-aadmi’, is not that which
affects the development and the core interest of
a diverse and relatively poor country like
India. They have total disregard for the
consequences of the choice of their topics. They
have also displayed the politics of frustration,
the politics of how to short-circuit the mandate
of five years, how to create uncertainty and
instability which is precisely what led to the
events of 2008. We believe and we have to thank
the opposition for it that yesterday’s debates
showed them in the extremely poor and shoddy
light in which they deserve to be shown. It
showed them in the light of those who want to
unseat legitimately democratically elected
parties by undemocratic means because in their
desperation for power, they showed a desperate
search for buyers. There were sellers,
desperately trying to sell themselves searching
for buyers and in that process; they forgot
difference between a legitimate sting and
entrapment. They forgot the distinction between
creating instability as opposed to recording
corruptibility. In this light, we come back to
the basic points. Has the opposition got their
priorities right? Has the opposition got the
topics of their debate right? Has the opposition
shown responsibility in dealing with issues
which affect this country or the world at large
and the answer is an unfortunate but emphatic
‘NO’.
To a question on the reaction of the Congress
party over the opposition cooperating with
regard to the Pension Fund Regulatory Authority
Bill introduced in Lok Sabha, Shri Singhvi said
for Pension Fund Regulatory Authority Bill or
any similar legislative initiative, which, by
the way, has been our initiative, merely to be
introduced, there are enormous cases of
non-cooperation. The balance sheet is totally
one-sided. The BJP’s balance sheet of balanced
and responsible politics is completely on the
deficit side, on the debit side.
Shri Singhvi further added that there is no
question of ‘bailing-out’. They would be seen in
this country as even more irresponsible, if they
were not to support public interest measures.
There is something known as public
accountability before which even the most
intrinsic political party has to bow out. Shri
Singhvi also said that he has given the media a
far larger charter of BJP irresponsibility.
There are innumerable cases where on normal
bills, the parties cooperative. That is all that
has happened today.
On the foreign policy question with regard to
Libya, Shri Singhvi said it is completely
unrelated to what I am saying. I was talking
about the ameliorative and humanitarian measures
taken by India to help Indians stranded in these
countries. As far as your debate on Libya is
concerned, it is the government of India’s stand
which initiated and it got all-round support but
the government of India will not be dictated to
by the opposition as to the form of resolution
to be passed. The government of India has made
its stand very clear that we do not support
external intervention and it is our prerogative
and we shall continue to exercise as to what
form of words to be used. We intend to stick to
our formulation.
To a question over the on-going Jat agitation
and the methods adopted by them to press their
demand, Shri Singhvi said the issues can be
resolved by discussion. The use of violence in
any form or the services affecting the common
man should not be the tool for resolving any
issue.
On the reaction of the Congress party over the
statement of leader of opposition demanding CBI
probe into cash-for-vote scam, Shri Singhvi said
there is lot of problem because this is nothing
but a cover up by them to try to divert the
attention. If and when we think it necessary, we
reserve the right to do so. We are not yet to be
dictated by them. We have additional very
serious evidence that there were desperate
sellers desperately in search of buyers
motivated only by creating instability and this
is fundamentally opposed to the basic canons of
a legitimate sting operation. You just cannot
first create such situation and then allege
corruption against somebody. There was a
misreading and distortion of the committee
report as well. There was an assault on the
Prime Minister which was completely unjustified.
All this diverted the energies of the country
and our parliament for several days. That is
completely irresponsible politics. We have been
very transparent.
(Tom Vadakkan)
Secretary, AICC
