The Hindu : Congress demands public apology

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Congress demands public apology

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 7. Two days after the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, demanded that all those who had dragged the name of her husband and former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, into the Bofors controversy should apologise, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Prem Singh, today asked the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and other BJP and NDA leaders to say sorry.

Addressing jhuggi dwellers in the lawns of DPCC office here, Mr. Singh said these people had dragged Rajiv Gandhi's name knowing full well that he was innocent. Asserting that the court has now "given him a clean chit'', the DPCC president said the entire episode was a conspiracy hatched at the behest of some foreign powers inimical to the progress and growth of the country as they wanted to create instability and stall developmental works.

The "exoneration'' of Rajiv Gandhi, he said, was a clear vindication of the innocence of the former Prime Minister. Stating that there should be "open trial of those stooges of the foreign powers who had indulged in a vilification campaign to tarnish the clean image of Rajiv Gandhi and tortured the Gandhi family by spreading canards and unfound allegations all through the last 17 years,'' Mr Singh said the Congress will not settle for anything less than a public apology and stiff punishment to the guilty.

Then turning to the local issues, he said the Congress will resist any move of the BJP-led NDA Government to demolish and relocate the jhuggi- jhopri clusters without providing alternate plots of at least 20 square yards to the displaced persons in developed areas.

Stating that the displaced persons should only be rehabilitated in areas having a proper provision of roads, water, electricity and schools, he said, it should also be ensured that they were easily approachable from Delhi so that the poor people were able to commute easily.

But in Delhi, he said, the NDA Government appears to have worked out a plan to throw out the jhuggi dwellers by relocating them in remote corners where they do not have any source of livelihood and scope for employment. This was being done to force them to leave Delhi, he charged.

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