Thaindian News

Lucknow, April 21 (IANS) Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said Thursday that he would answer Lokpal bill drafting committee co-chair Shanti Bhushan’s defamation notice in court.

“I have taken many such notices in my political life, I will reply to it only in court,” Digvijay Singh told a press conference here. He added that he had not yet received Shanti Bhushan’s notice.

Former law minister Shanti Bhushan Wednesday served a legal notice on Digvijay Singh, demanding a public apology for alleging he had undervalued a property in Allahabad and not paid adequate stamp duty on it.

The defamation notice said Digvijay Singh had given a television interview and cast aspersions on Bhushan’s integrity.

“Whatever I have said was on the basis of newspaper and media reports. If Shanti Bhushan has to file a defamation suit, he should file it against Mayawati whose government issued the notice for undervaluation of his Allahabad property,” Digvijay Singh said.

He also attacked the Bhushans on the row over a CD that purportedly has Shanti Bhushan speaking to Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his former confidant Amar Singh. The Bhushans have called the CD fake.

“This is a new trend. If there is a blame on (Karnataka Chief Minister) Yeddyurappa, they say we have done the probe; similarly Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan probed the CD themselves and said the CD is fake,” he said.

“The Congress is fighting against corruption, but only a Lokpal bill will not solve the problem. People who have more property than their income should be brought to book, whether it is Mulayam Singh or Mayawati.”

The 10-member committee to draft a more stringent Lokpal (ombudsman) bill to fight corruption was set up following a fast-unto-death by social reformer Anna Hazare. Both Shanti Bhushan and his son lawyer son Prashant are members of the panel.

Referring to the alleged irregularities by Shanti Bhushan in the purchase of property in Allahabad’s prime Civil Lines area as well as the allotment of farmhouse plots in Noida, Digvijay Singh skirted a question why union ministers in the Lokpal Bill draft committee had not made their assets public.

“All ministers and MPs as a rule made an annual declaration of their assets, therefore there was no need for a separate public declaration in their capacity as members of the draft committee,” he said.

The five civil society members on the committee had made their assets public.

Discussing what he said was rampant corruption in the Mayawati government, the Congress leader sought to link the murder of two district chief medical officers in a span of six months to financial bunglings.

“When the government had admitted that such financial irregularities were going on for sometime in the state’s health and family welfare departments, for which it sacked two ministers, then why was it shirking away from a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) inquiry into the whole affair,” he asked.

Claiming that the Congress-led UPA government was committed to fighting corruption, he said: “Tell me, which other government has ever taken such prompt action against the corrupt?”