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Cong in damage control mode
The Congress top leadership on Friday discussed the impact of the Supreme Court judgement on the 2G scam on the Government and party’s prospect in the ongoing Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress Core Group, headed by party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, discussed the strategy to be adopted to dilute the adverse effect of the verdict which has affected the party’s image and its anti-corruption campaign.
The concern of the Congress is based on the fact that it has been attacking the Mayawati Government for various scams with its star campaigner Priyanka Vadra even terming corruption as the single biggest enemy. The Congress leadership also deliberated on the possible verdict of the special trial court on Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy’s petition against Home Minister P Chidambaram and ways to tackle its political fallout, according to sources.
The party on Friday continued with its desperate defence of the Prime Minister and Chidambaram, whose resignation is being demanded by the BJP, saying the Supreme Court has not held them directly or indirectly responsible for the 2G scam. But, in the process, it tied itself in knots.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi initially blamed the first-come-first-served policy formulated and first implemented by the previous NDA regime saying that the SC order has condemned it. But he later said the policy was right and that the court has held former Telecom Minister A Raja guilty of distorting and changing the policy not once but thrice.
“We accept the fact that today the first-come-first-served policy has been condemned....This Government must accept responsibility and we do accept responsibility for the errors of the FCFS. The FCFS was on February 2 held to be wrong,” Singhvi said.
However, when asked if FCFS policy was erroneous why did the UPA Government continued with it and not scrap it like it had done to POTA, Singhvi mumbled that since there was no SC judgement “holding FCFS as bad in concept till yesterday. You cannot be penalised and punished for continuing a policy.” He instead asked the BJP also to share the blame for initiating FCFC policy.
He said, “BJP and some other Opposition parties have tried for last 18 months to suggest that the legal proceedings must culminate in an indictment of the PM or at least a comment against him but they failed.”
He termed the BJP as double faced and hypocritical and flayed it for sensationalising and using legal verdicts for political end. Regarding the SC verdict on giving nod to prosecution sanctions within four months, he said the matter concerned all governments including that of NDA. He reminded that the Parliamentary Committee on Law and Justice in its report on the Lokpal Bill had suggested scrapping all kinds of prior sanction and blamed the BJP for not allowing the Bill to be passed.
The Congress top leadership on Friday discussed the impact of the Supreme Court judgement on the 2G scam on the Government and party’s prospect in the ongoing Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress Core Group, headed by party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, discussed the strategy to be adopted to dilute the adverse effect of the verdict which has affected the party’s image and its anti-corruption campaign.
The concern of the Congress is based on the fact that it has been attacking the Mayawati Government for various scams with its star campaigner Priyanka Vadra even terming corruption as the single biggest enemy. The Congress leadership also deliberated on the possible verdict of the special trial court on Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy’s petition against Home Minister P Chidambaram and ways to tackle its political fallout, according to sources.
The party on Friday continued with its desperate defence of the Prime Minister and Chidambaram, whose resignation is being demanded by the BJP, saying the Supreme Court has not held them directly or indirectly responsible for the 2G scam. But, in the process, it tied itself in knots.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi initially blamed the first-come-first-served policy formulated and first implemented by the previous NDA regime saying that the SC order has condemned it. But he later said the policy was right and that the court has held former Telecom Minister A Raja guilty of distorting and changing the policy not once but thrice.
“We accept the fact that today the first-come-first-served policy has been condemned....This Government must accept responsibility and we do accept responsibility for the errors of the FCFS. The FCFS was on February 2 held to be wrong,” Singhvi said.
However, when asked if FCFS policy was erroneous why did the UPA Government continued with it and not scrap it like it had done to POTA, Singhvi mumbled that since there was no SC judgement “holding FCFS as bad in concept till yesterday. You cannot be penalised and punished for continuing a policy.” He instead asked the BJP also to share the blame for initiating FCFC policy.
He said, “BJP and some other Opposition parties have tried for last 18 months to suggest that the legal proceedings must culminate in an indictment of the PM or at least a comment against him but they failed.”
He termed the BJP as double faced and hypocritical and flayed it for sensationalising and using legal verdicts for political end. Regarding the SC verdict on giving nod to prosecution sanctions within four months, he said the matter concerned all governments including that of NDA. He reminded that the Parliamentary Committee on Law and Justice in its report on the Lokpal Bill had suggested scrapping all kinds of prior sanction and blamed the BJP for not allowing the Bill to be passed.
