Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi Wednesday said she does not support or encourage the politics of smear campaign and reaffirmed her support to the institution of Lokpal and the need to combat corruption.

In her response to Hazare’s letter of April 18, Gandhi said the Lokpal bill was on the agenda of the National Advisory Council (NAC) and it was going ahead with consultations with the civil society before the process was overtaken by “subsequent events”.

“Let me reiterate what I wrote to you earlier that I believe there is an urgent necessity to combat graft and corruption. You should have no doubt of my commitment in the fight for probity in public life,” Gandhi wrote to Hazare in her capacity as chairperson of NAC.

Gandhi detailed the efforts being made for NAC on the Lokpal bill and said consultations were being held with all the civil society representatives who are now members of the joint committee for drafting the bill.

“As you know, the NAC Working Group on Transparency, Accountability and Governance under Aruna Roy held consultations with several representatives of the civil society including Shanti Bhushan, Santosh Hegde and Prashant Bhushan who are now on the joint committee, as well as Swami Agnivesh and Arvind Kejriwal who have been closely associated with you.”

Gandhi made only a brief and pointed reference to the “smear campaign” mentioned by Hazare.

“As for statements appearing in the media, let me assure you that I do not support nor encourage the politics of smear campaigns,” she said in the letter April 19, distributed to the media Wednesday.

Hazare had said that corrupt forces appeared to have united to derail the process of drafting an effective anti-corruption law and one of their strategies was to smear the reputation of the civil society members in the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal bill.

Without directly naming Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, Hazare accused him of giving factually incorrect statements to mislead people and derail the discussions in joint committee.

He also accused Communications Minister Kapil Sibal of creating confusion through his remarks to the media.

Hazare’s letter came in the wake of controversies surrounding a CD containing a purported telephonic conversation between co-chair of the joint committee for drafting the Lokpal Bill Shanti Bhushan, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and former Samajwadi party leader Amar Singh, allegedly about attempts to influence a judge.