Vadra on mind, Cong fully backs Khurshid
16 Oct 2012 7:49 AM IST
After the law minister Salman Khurshid led a counter-charge against the media house that accused his trust in Uttar Pradesh of embezzling funds meant for the disabled, he successfully sought the backing of the Congress high command. After the press conference, he had gone straight to meet the party bosses at 7, Race Course Road.
Just as he had provided documentary and photographic evidence at the press conference, he carried this material to the top leaders of his party to convince them of his innocence in the alleged Rs 71.5-lakh scam. According to the highly placed sources in the Congress, the Congress leadership accepted his defence in the case.
Sources told Millennium Post that one of the fallouts of this meeting is that the Congress top brass has decided to continue with him as the union law minister, much against the wishes of anti-corruption activists, like Arvind Kejriwal. What worked in his favour, sources say, is that the high command felt that if he was asked to go from the cabinet, then it will give legitimacy to the charges of the media house and Kejriwal, and it would also make the party president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's position more vulnerable. The party was also keen to avoid the eventuality of bringing the Vadra issue back into limelight, which is off-radar due to the Khurshid controversy.
After the meeting, the party issued a direction to its senior leaders to go all out in Khurshid's defence. After this, the leaders – Ambika Soni, Digvijay Singh, Beni Prasad Verma, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sandeep Dikshit – predictably launched an attack in the media on Kejriwal and the India Today Group. At the same time, Khurshid issued statements about filing multiple lawsuits against the media house in India and abroad.
Verma, however, put his foot in mouth when he said, 'I believe Salman Khurshid could not have embezzled Rs 71 lakh, as it is a very small amount for a central minister. I would have taken it seriously if the amount was Rs. 71 crore.' Later, he retracted the statement, saying that he was misquoted. He said, 'Corruption is corruption, even if it is for one rupee.' But, then, he added, 'Salman Khurshid is a big personality.... He won't do this for 71 lakh [rupees].'
Just as he had provided documentary and photographic evidence at the press conference, he carried this material to the top leaders of his party to convince them of his innocence in the alleged Rs 71.5-lakh scam. According to the highly placed sources in the Congress, the Congress leadership accepted his defence in the case.
Sources told Millennium Post that one of the fallouts of this meeting is that the Congress top brass has decided to continue with him as the union law minister, much against the wishes of anti-corruption activists, like Arvind Kejriwal. What worked in his favour, sources say, is that the high command felt that if he was asked to go from the cabinet, then it will give legitimacy to the charges of the media house and Kejriwal, and it would also make the party president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's position more vulnerable. The party was also keen to avoid the eventuality of bringing the Vadra issue back into limelight, which is off-radar due to the Khurshid controversy.
After the meeting, the party issued a direction to its senior leaders to go all out in Khurshid's defence. After this, the leaders – Ambika Soni, Digvijay Singh, Beni Prasad Verma, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sandeep Dikshit – predictably launched an attack in the media on Kejriwal and the India Today Group. At the same time, Khurshid issued statements about filing multiple lawsuits against the media house in India and abroad.
Verma, however, put his foot in mouth when he said, 'I believe Salman Khurshid could not have embezzled Rs 71 lakh, as it is a very small amount for a central minister. I would have taken it seriously if the amount was Rs. 71 crore.' Later, he retracted the statement, saying that he was misquoted. He said, 'Corruption is corruption, even if it is for one rupee.' But, then, he added, 'Salman Khurshid is a big personality.... He won't do this for 71 lakh [rupees].'
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