Press Briefing Wednesday, 29 Apr 2009

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi addressed the media today.

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi said that the BJP to hide its inadequacies has been attacking the Congress party on complete non-issues. On the other hand it has not provided any issues of its own. The “Bhartiya Janta Ka Tamasha” party is trying to create a “tamasha” of issues in a serious election. One can see this from the kind of issues they are raising. Just a few days ago, Mr. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that inflation was breaking records. The other issue was to make their self-appointed Prime Minister-in-waiting into Prime Ministerial material by using adjectives like ‘mazboot and nirnayak’. The third issue was making a conclusion on India’s security based on cricket and tennis matches. He also added that the BJP was merely imitating and ‘copy-cating’ the Congress party on policy issues and the manifesto. And fifthly the BJP was raising the non-issue of the foreign bank accounts.

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi said that the BJP does not realize that inflation has hit all time low (of 0.44%) both in terms of whole sale price index and consumer price index. Clearly the BJP can only blindly make allegations. The BJP will never bring out the following three simple facts on the economy – firstly an average total GDP consistent growth for 5 years over 8.78%, secondly an agriculture 5 year average 3.5% growth rate and thirdly average industrial growth rate of 9% and service industry growth at 10%. The BJP is definitely not prepared to debate these aspects of the economy he added.

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi said that Advani, the self appointed Prime Minister-in-waiting was nothing but a night watchman for Mr. Modi. One wonders how long this real batsman-in-waiting (Modi) will allow this night watchman to exist even as his mask.

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi said that even on the issue of security the BJP indulges in double speak. They went on to say that if the UPA could not give venues for organizing the IPL cricket matches, it would be held in the BJP ruled States. Clearly this was an extremely insulting statement aimed at dividing and Balkanising India. On the same day a letter was produced in well known publication and newspapers which referred to a March 17 letter written by the Police Chief of Gujarat addressed to Gujarat Cricket Association that they were not in a position to deploy police forces for all IPL matches between April 15 to May 3. This exposes the cheap gimmickry that the BJP is indulging in. He also added that just because Australia for their own concerns did not participate in one match or one tournament did not justify the BJP in ridiculing the security situation in India. This was a manifestation of their cheap politics.

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi then spoke about the strong comprehensive legal notice sent by Shri Rahul Gandhi for an absolutely vicious and baseless attack on him personally and on his political persona.. He added that the legal notice basically contains that Shri Rahul Gandhi was a student at the Trinity College of University of Cambridge UK. Secondly Shri Rahul Gandhi was a student from October 1994 to July 1995 which is the duration of the academic term. Thirdly, he was awarded an M.Phil in Development Studies from this University. All these facts are unalterable. The certificate issued to Shri Rahul Gandhi by the University of Cambridge and a specific letter written by the Vice Chancellor in this regard is being attached to the copy of the legal notice being circulated among the media. He added that it was disappointing that some elements in the media were making wild allegations and sly innuendos on Shri Rahul Gandhi. He added that the legal notice was being served to the New Indian Express office in Delhi, to Mr. Aditya Sinha, Editor-in-Chief of the New Indian Express Group and Mr. R.K. Jhunjhunwala, Printer and Publisher on behalf of the Express Publication Ltd. This notice has been issued on account of the personal vendetta and well thought out campaign to malign Shri Rahul Gandhi. He quoted that in the concerned article (details of which are specified in the copy of the legal notice) it has been mentioned that Shri Rahul Gandhi sought to “pad” his CV with respectable qualifications having flunked prestigious educational institutions in India and USA. He clarified that Shri Rahul Gandhi was majoring in BA (Hons) History in St. Stephen’s in July 1989 and during Shri Rahul Gandhi’s 2nd year he got admission in the prestigious Harvard Institution. With a full consent of St. Stephen’s he transferred to Harvard. While studying at Harvard, the unfortunate incident of his father Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination took place, so with the full consent of Harvard University, he had to shift to another place to complete his Degree under an assumed name for security purposes. Further he said that the concerned article mentions that Shri Rahul Gandhi perhaps needed an M.Phil in Developmental Economics to open a Swiss bank account. Dr. Abhishek Singhvi said that this is nothing but the language of cheap yellow journalism. The fact that these allegations were made without verifying, when they could easily have been verified shows that there was an intention to hurt Shri Rahul Gandhi and was driven by political agenda. And therefore, Shri Rahul Gandhi intends to sue them for defamation. He added that the notice ends with a call for the delinquent to make an unconditional apology and unconditionally withdraw all the erroneous statements. But this notice still reserves Shri Rahul Gandhi the right to reject the above apology and take necessary legal action.

To a question on Quattrocchi, Dr. Singhvi said that one needs to stick to the facts. He reminded that there was an NDA Government in place, the Law Minister was Arun Jaitley who sent a hand picked Additional Solicitor General Shri Rohatgi to argue the Quattrocchi case but after months and months of argument, this case was lost and after this case was lost Mr. Arun Jaitley’s Government did not file an appeal at all. He reminded that of the last 22 years, 10 years has seen a non-Congress Government in place, then why those who keep shouting about this issue not get hold of Quattrocchi, Hinduja, etc. He further said that a special legal counsel was engaged to fight this case in the Sessions Court at Malaysia and the result was that the case was dismissed. In fact, after three years of litigation and having appealed even to the Apex Court of Malaysia, the verdict was the same – the case was dismissed for lack of evidence.. All this happened between 2001 to 2004 when the NDA was in power. Will the BJP now imply that the CBI was under the control of the Congress party even during their regime, he wondered. CBI had to face the same fate in Argentina too as in Malaysia. He added that in all Rs. 200 crore was spent on legal fees and court costs and all of this went in vain. He said that this entire exercise was only an attempt by the BJP to tarnish the name of the Congress party and is raised before any Assembly or Parliamentary election. He clarified that after 20 years of not being able to find any evidence, the current issue of an opinion dated October 2008 said that if there is no main case against Quattrocchi, then how can there be Red Corner Notice. He said that the Congress party neither supports nor opposes this opinion. He added that it was a normal, routine action of the CBI proposing to act on that opinion. But this proposal will not be decided by the Congress party or by Arun Jaitley, rather it will be decided by a CBI designated Judge.

To a question, Dr. Singhvi said that the UPA Government was making every possible suggestion for the rehabilitation of the non-combative Sri Lankan Tamil civilians.

To another question, Dr. Singhvi said that the BJP has a habit of proposing for the future. Previously, they could have, if they really wanted to, investigated the functioning of the CBI but they did not do so.




(Tom Vadakkan)

Secretary, AICC