Press
Briefing Thursday, 25th November 2010
Smt.
Jayanthi Natarajan addressed the media today.
Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan said I would like to make a
short statement about the situation in Karnataka. We
strongly condemn the continued functioning of the
Karnataka Chief Minister Shri Yedyurappa. After having
himself accepted his own illegal act of de-notifying
land and giving it to his sons and after having
surrendered the land in an acceptance of guilt to cling
to the chair and office of Chief Minister of Karnataka,
is unconstitutional and a terrible blot upon our
democracy. In addition, although the matter is being
enquired into by the Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde,
another enquiry has been set up by the Chief Minister
presumably to derail the enquiry happening under the
Lokayukta. This too shows the malafide intent of the
Chief Minister. The national leadership of the BJP
stands exposed in all its hypocrisy and double-standards
and total cooperation and participation in the corrupt
activities of the Karnataka Chief Minister in not taking
any action against him and announcing on one hand that
an enquiry was being held against him but on the other
that he would be allowed to continue. These standards
are not being applied by the BJP when any issue comes up
in any other context including the latest case of the
2-G Scam where Raja resigned even before the CAG report
was tabled in Parliament. The BJP should also answer to
the nation why they continue to block the functioning of
Parliament thereby wasting even more money than was
probably lost to the nation as a result of all the
corruption scandals going on in Karnataka and other BJP
ruled states.
On the question of unequivocal and categorical answer of
the Congress party on the demand of JPC by the
opposition, Smt. Natarajan said that is something for
Mr. Bansal to answer but the stand of the Congress party
is that there is absolutely no need for JPC. That the
Public Accounts Committee is seized of the matter and is
more than capable of handling the matter particularly
because it is also being monitored by the Hon’ble
Supreme Court of India.
On the question of resignation of Mr. Mukul Wasnik over
the poor performance of the Congress party in the
recently concluded Assembly elections in Bihar, Smt.
Natarajan said she is not aware of the resignation of
Mr. Mukul Wasnik. She would also like to place on record
that those in charge of campaign in Bihar also worked
very hard, put in place a strategy and tried their best
to make sure that we get good results. Certainly we have
not done well at all but that is something we will
introspect upon and understand the causes and the
reasons for our lack of success in Bihar.
On the question of the accountability for such a loss in
Bihar Assembly elections, Smt. Natarajan said this is
something which is within the party. Accountability
taking responsibility for what happened; all these are
going on and is a dynamic process. Nobody is unaware of
their responsibilities. At the same time the party
strongly believes that all concerned have put in their
best efforts. Somehow the work has not succeeded but we
will examine at the party level and all of us take
responsibility of the party as a whole.
On another question that Bihar PCC President took
responsibility and has resigned and others are shirking
from taking responsibility, Smt. Natarajan said she does
not think anybody is shirking from anything. It is
something which is an internal party matter. As a party,
all of us are responsible at some level. We take
responsibility as a party.
On the question whether there is any change of alliance
in Tamil Nadu in light of Bihar Assembly election
results, Smt. Natarajan said that we have an alliance
with the DMK. We continue to be in alliance with the DMK.
As the General Secretary In-charge of Tamil Nadu has
said there is no vacancy and there is no issue regarding
the alliance.
On the question that the magic of Shri Rahul Gandhi had
failed in Bihar, Smt. Natarajan said the notion that
Shri Rahul Gandhi’s magic failed is a misconceived which
we completely and totally reject. Nobody in the party
claimed that there was any magic functioning. This
itself was a deliberately contrived media term. Shri
Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary of the Congress party is
an icon of the youth. He worked in Bihar as he works in
other States of the country to galvanize primarily the
youth and also all the party cadres. There can be no
doubt as we could see from the crowds at his meetings in
Bihar that he had galvanized the party cadres by his
visits and by his meeting. He continued to campaign in
Bihar as any national leader would campaign and his
campaigning was very well received both by our cadres
and by the people of Bihar. The fact that this has not
translated into seats in the election is something the
party is studying but it is totally misconceived and we
reject the notion. First of all we never claimed that
there was any magic. Hon’ble Congress President Smt.
Sonia Gandhi has said we are going to build the party
from scratch in Bihar and we are looking at long term.
It is never our intention and we always knew that we
were not going to form the Government in Bihar. The idea
was to build our party and therefore, we took a
deliberate decision not to go in alliance in Bihar.
On another question that elections in many states
elections are going to take place and in the light of
Bihar election results whether the Congress party has
lost its moral ground, Smt. Natarajan said that is again
completely a misconceived notion. Everybody knows that
the Congress party is the only party with the largest
mass base and either in Government or occupying the
largest opposition space in every State in the country.
The Congress party, at the national level, has a
leadership that is unmatched by any other party. We
perform in a particular way during Parliament elections
and in a different way during State elections. There may
be some electoral reverses but that does not mean that
the importance, relevance or the continued pre-eminence
of the Congress party as a political organization in the
country will ever suffer in any way. Smt. Natarajan
further said that she does not believe that anywhere in
any part of the country among the democratic polity that
people actually believe that the Congress party stands
devalued in any way at all.
On the question whether it is the failure of the
ideology of the Congress party as compared to the
ideology of JD (U) and BJP during Bihar elections, Smt.
Natarajan said that the ideology of the Congress party
always remains the same. She further said that the BJP
and the JD (U) do not even share an ideology. As a
matter of fact, the BJP and JD (U) are so dissimilar
that Mr. Narendra Modi was not allowed to come to Bihar
during elections and not invited to come to the
swearing-in even now. It is only because Mr. Nitish
Kumar junked the BJP ideology that he was able to win
the elections. The Congress party’s ideology always
remains the same. We work for inclusive growth, we stand
for secularism and we work for the welfare of aam-aadmi.
The Central Government has sent large amounts of money
towards the development of Bihar which is no doubt the
entitlement of the people of Bihar and some way we
failed to take our message to the people which is what
we will introspect on. The Congress party’s ideology
remains relevant until today and if our message has not
reached the people, we accept the verdict and we will
try to understand why that message did not reach the
people of Bihar.
On the question of 2-G spectrum, Smt. Natarajan said
that judgment is reserved by the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
She speaks for the Congress party and would not like to
comment on it since the matter is subjudice.
Tom Vadakkan
Secretary, AICC
