Press Briefing Friday, 04th Jun 2010

Shri Abhishek Sinhghvi addressed the media today.

On the question of Shri Sharad Pawar's statement on his involvement in IPL issue, Shri Singhvi said that Mr. Sharad Pawar is the head of a valuable ally. This is a question which you have to put to him in all fairness. You are also aware that general enquiries into such affairs are already on but the question has to be put to him. This is merely a report which has appeared in the newspaper. You have to ask the person concerned. We have nothing further to add or comment on this.

On another question of the BJP and the Left parties demanding the resignation of Mr. Pawar and asking for CBI and JPC investigation, Shri Singhvi said that do you expect opposition to demand anything else. We are not surprised by their demands.

On the question of Mr. Moro, Shri Singhvi said that a legal notice was sent to Mr. Moro more than 5-6 months ago. A detailed clarification has been published in a leading newspaper two days ago on page 2. I only want to put it before you and leave it for your consideration. He is a person I have never met and never talked to. A legal notice is sent to him in black and white months ago. If he considers a legal notice to be a threat, he needs to have his understanding of law and English grammar reconsidered. In our legal notice earlier and in the detailed report published two days ago, we have given more than 20 examples from the book and challenged him to substantiate even one. His silence is deafening and eloquent. If he cannot substantiate 100s of pages, 1000s of lines which are in inverted commas in first person of which he has no personal knowledge, no documents and it impairs reputation of any person, then it is a clear defamation. On the contrary, Mr. Moro admits defamation by calling it a fictional biography. For a living person if anything impairs the reputation of a living person, it has to be either factual or written with that person's consent. Mr. Moro does not realise that he is admitting defamation. In our respectful view, a person like Mr. Moro exploiting for personal commercial gains somebody's privacy purely for money and then talking of principles like censorship and freedom of speech and expression is worse than the devil quoting scriptures. Mr. Moro should realize that as in his country and so also in our country, everybody is subject to rule of law and the rule of law includes the rule of defamation. It is a simple legal notice sent to him which is within the rights of the person defamed. He is the perpetrator who is pretending to be the victim. We are amused at the BJP jumping into the individual matter where the person defamed has sent a legal notice and preaching to this country and to us about the freedom of speech and expression. Firstly they seem to have forgotten the constitution. Even the right to free speech is expressly subject to the law of defamation. But more interestingly who is preaching the freedom of speech, those who actually expelled member of their own party for writing a book who had not perhaps even committed an act of defamation and those who went to the streets on a issue related to MF Hussain and those who tried indirectly to curb the screening of the film Fardaniya in Gujarat. The crux of the matter is that 100s of pages and lines pointed out in the public domain, if the author can substantiate even one, he has a right to be indicted. Otherwise he should exercise his right to be silent.

Shri Singhvi further added that five months ago Mr. Moro had agreed to a disclaimer at his request in each book. The terms of the disclaimer were worked out. But perhaps not his need but his greed for commercial benefit, at the last minute, he backed out because he did not want any limitation on exploitation of this work in other media forms namely by film, by interview other than book form. While he was prepared to put a disclaimer for the book, he wanted to be left free to deal with it in any other way which is not acceptable. These are the facts which he is conveniently suppressing.

On the question of Afzal Guru, Mr. Singhvi said that obviously the process of sending the recommendations is to expedite and bring to conclusion the entire process of taking a final decision on the Afzal Guru matter. Naturally that process is intended to culminate in conclusion.

On the question of the reaction of the Congress Party on the statement of Haryana CM on Khap Panchayat, Shri Singhvi said that CM has already explained that this is his personal view. Secondly he is talking entirely in a social context on a personal view. Thirdly it does not in any manner means directly or indirectly that he is supporting, endorsing or encouraging any violation of any law in any manner.

On the question of the statement of Mr. Sharad Pawar on the Ranganath Mishra Commission report, Shri Singhvi said that both Mr. Pawar and Mr. Tripathi, Spokesperson of NCP have categorically clarified that they never referred to the Congress.

Tom Vadakkan

Secretary, AICC