Press Briefing Friday, 6th January 2012

Shri Abhishek Singhvi addressed the media today.

Shri Abhishek Singhvi said hypocrisy of BJP is like a Himalayan peak. There is no wider hiatus between preaching and practice that you can ever find anywhere. As we have said it is imperative for Mr. Advani to immediately embark on ‘rath-yatra’. This ‘rath-yatra’, however, will be by the BJP for the BJP because Mr. Advani should know that this country does not require education about corruption. His party does. His party needs to be told the true scope of corruption. It is the most fertile ground for promoting and encouraging corrupt people. We are told this is the purificatory right which happens when allegedly corrupt get in to the BJP. It is very sad that polluters are welcomed and you are told that everybody has become pure instead of polluted. They are the savior of Judeo. Look at their forked tongue. They count the cash with Bangaru Laxman. Look at their hypocrisy. They bow out and kneel before Yeddyuruppa. Look at their preaching without practice. They support Reddy brothers till recently and the distinguished gallery which they have built up is not limited to Mr. Kushwaha alone. The distinguished gallery includes Mr. Satish, Mr. Sakshi Maharaj, Mr. Badshah Singh, and Mr. Dhananjay Singh and there are many more names. The voter has an alternative between a party which is encouraged, protected and given power & position and pelf to such people for five years the licence to loot UP. The other alternative projected before the electorate is those who welcome them on the eve of the election after giving lectures to the whole country about corruption and taking out ‘rath-yeatra’. These are the two birds with the same feather. They always flock together. Necessarily the BJP and the BSP understand each others’ culture. One practices utter hypocrisy by seeking to expel them a few weeks before election and the other welcomes them. The BJP has no need to carry a delegation to the Hon’ble President of India to shed crocodile tears on the Lokpal. The BJP should have an internal Lokpal and an internal Ombudsman which carefully scrutinizes and screens the applicants to only allow the corrupt to get through and then they should go out and give lecture to the nation. This is a very short and abbreviated synoptic view of the utter hypocrisy of this party.

On the reaction of the Congress party over the statement of Shanti Bhushan that the case of evasion of stamp duty against him is only because of the Congress party, Shri Singhvi said I think we are waiting and the whole country is waiting with bated breath for the day when anything wrong which happens in this country when the smallest leaf moves it is not ascribed to the Congress party. This univocal animosity against the Congress party tells its own tale. The silence about other parties is eloquent and sends its own message. If so much bias and animus against the Congress, such people should join the political movement and fight the congress directly. It is in the ultimate analysis very obvious to all people who have already drawn their conclusion about this biased one-sided negative and consistently critical commentary about the congress and anti-congressism as a creed which some people in this country have adopted.

To a question over the fact that Uma Bharati is going to campaign whereas earlier she had decided not to campaign in the UP elections, Shri Singhvi said this is not for me to comment who campaigns and who does not campaign. These are internal matters of their party. We have already seen on candid camera on your cameras what divide can mean between the BJP and the person you have named. You have to ask them.

On the question of giving a long rope to Mamata Banerjee, Shri Singhvi said nobody is denying that there have been differences of opinion but to suggest that such differences of opinion are irreconcilable for some quarters to try to act as ‘Naradmuni’ and to provoke and to create a provocative atmosphere is not right. The fact of the matter that we are in an alliance and we believe that there is nothing which cannot be sorted out even though sometimes time consuming by in depth talks and we have no doubt ultimately there will be a convergence.

To another question as to the release of the Punjab list of candidates and few of them are related to the leaders of the party, Shri Singhvi said I think this is the perennial asked question and every time some basics are forgotten. In a long list of different states, you will find few persons related to each other. That happens in every party in every election. The crucial point is that are they persons having a standing of their own with a winability quotient in that area. If somebody has winability quotient, he cannot and should not be denied a ticket merely for the reason he happens to be related to somebody. No party is as foolish as you might suppose to give deliberately ticket to somebody who is surely to lose thereby destroying its own chances of forming government only because that person is related to another person. Please don’t think that Congress party thinks like that because we are not imbued with suicidal tendencies.




(Tom Vadakkan)
Secretary, AICC