Press Briefing Friday, 24 Apr 2009

Shri Kapil Sibal addressed the media today.

Shri Kapil Sibal said that BJP is on a sticky wicket and is fast loosing ground in the Lok Sabha elections. This is evident by the recent statements of the party’s top leaders. These are apparently aimed to mislead the people of the country in the hope that it pays them electoral dividends.

Shri Kapil Sibal said that Mr. Jaswant Singh, during the course of an interview to the Indian Express, had stated that during the IC-814 hijacking episode, Mr. Advani and Mr. Shourie were against the release of the terrorists and it was on the directions of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, that he personally went and explained the situation to Mr. Advani. Consequently, Mr. Advani responded to the collective wishes of the cabinet.

Shri Kapil Sibal said that Mr. Jaswant Singh needs to explain why he maintained a studied silence on this issue for all these years and what forces him to share his insights into the hijacking episode only now. Shri Sibal said that the people of the country realize that this is a clear case of political expediency and the only aim is to portray the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani , in a favourable light.

Shri Kapil Sibal said that Mr. Jaswant Singh should also tell the people why he escorted the terrorists to Kandahar, the adopted home base of Osama Bin Laden. Yet, Mr. Jaswant Singh went to Kandahar and interacted with the Taliban, which was not recognized by the Indian Government. Mr. Jaswant Singh argued that his presence in Kandahar was in the national interest, but the question is had he not gone there, would it have changed the outcome? Shri Sibal added that Mr. Jaswant Singh’s reasoning was quite baffling, as has been the case on a number of other issues.

Shri Kapil Sibal said that this was not for the first time that Mr. Jaswant Singh has tried to mislead the people of the country. He highlighted that Strobe Talbott in his book “Engaging India” wrote that India during NDA’s rule was close to signing the CTBT. The NDA’s interlocutor, Mr. Jaswant Singh repeatedly, in private, assured Talbott that India would sign the CTBT, although there was a parliamentary resolution firmly prohibiting that. In Page 98 of the book Talbott says that “At first he wanted to act quietly and in slow stages to favourably alter the context in which the treaty might be looked at anew”. Later, in the presence of Sandy Berger, national security advisor to President Clinton, Jaswant Singh reassured Talbott that “Vajpayee had taken an irreversible decision to sign the CTBT – it was just a question of how and when to make the decision public” (page 123). The book goes on to say that “In January 1999, Jaswant said that India would sign the CTBT by May…. Also assured me that under the Indian system, signature was tantamount to ratification” (page 145).

Shri Kapil Sibal further said that while the BJP raised serious objections to the Indo-US nuclear deal, Jaswant Singh in his talks with Talbott trashed the draft Nuclear Doctrine that was later adopted and is still the nation’s Nuclear Doctrine. When Talbott, “registered strong objection” to the draft doctrine, especially, against the “triad” of mobile weapons and under-sea assets, Jaswant Singh replied, “It was not really even a doctrine – it was just a set of recommendations that Vajpayee would almost certainly not accept. The United States should not “dignify” it by overreacting.” (page 172).

Shri Kapil Sibal further said that Mr. Jaswant Singh had again committed an act of grave impropriety when he breached the model code of conduct and was caught on tape distributing cash to the voters in Barmer, from where his son Manvendra Singh is contesting the Lok Sabha elections. Mr. Jaswant once again gave a flimsy reasoning that it is a tradition to gift money as a token of love. Shri Kapil Sibal was amused that Mr.Jaswant Singh was suddenly discovering his helpful nature that too at the time of elections.

Shri Kapil Sibal said that the people of India would not believe Mr. Jaswant Singh’s statements and that these would fall short of achieving their purpose of showing Mr. Advani in a favourable light. Thus, Mr. Advani would have to continue to remain content with the tag of Prime Minister- in-waiting even after the elections.

Relating to Jaswant Singh’s statement that just two days before the release of the terrorists , Smt. Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh, both asked the then Government to do anything to save the passengers, a question was posed as to what the Congress would have done under similar circumstances, to which Shri Kapil Sibal responded by saying that the Congress would not have allowed the plane to leave Amritsar and the situation would never have arisen.

On a question relating to Mr. Prakash Karat’s statement of forming a non-Congress secular Government, Shri Sibal said that the tally of the Left parties was bound to come down from 60 to 30 and in that situation they will not be in a position to help anybody, but the Congress party would definitely help them if they are in trouble.

On a question Shri Kapil Sibal said that there is no Third Front in the present and that the Third Front is merely presumed to be something that will happen in the future and so one need not talk about this hypothetical front. Shri Kapil Sibal further said that the Prime Minister has already said that on the 16th of May 2009 the Congress Party will see the situation and consider all options of forming the Government. Shri Kapil Sibal further added that the Congress was confident of forming the Government.

On a question as to whether the Congress party believed, after the 1996 experience of supporting Deve Gowda and IK Gujral, that it had burnt its fingers in doing so, Shri Kapil Sibal said that the polity today is so fractured that it is impossible for one single party to get an absolute majority on its own and that the Congress Party knows how to run a coalition Government and has demonstrated it in the last five years. Shri Kapil Sibal added that the Congress party also believes, at the same time, that India needs stability and for India to have that stability, a national formation led by a national party must be in place. Shri Kapil Sibal said that in the times to come, the Congress party would get an absolute majority to do the things that it has to do and is destined to do for the benefit of the nation and make India one of the greatest countries of the world.

Shri Kapil Sibal further said that the Congress party is not prepared to support any other formation because the Congress party will be the single largest party and will form the Government. He added that the secular parties will support the Congress and it would be Dr. Manmohan Singh who will unfurl the national flag on Lal Quila on 15th of August 2009.




(Tom Vadakkan)

Secretary, AICC