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Saturday, Sep 15, 2007
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Congress rejects apology plea

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party demand for an apology from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party president Sonia Gandhi for the affidavit filed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in the Supreme Court in regard to the Ramar Sethu project.

Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told the media that neither the Prime Minister nor Ms. Gandhi filed the affidavit.

Quickly rectified

“The important thing is the alacrity with which the mistake was rectified. To err is human, to rectify the error is divine. The speed with which the matter was rectified makes us deserve kudos. To make it into an issue as the Opposition parties are doing, is to exploit and politicise it.”

Enquiry on

While the government has withdrawn the controversial affidavit in the Supreme Court, the party said an enquiry was on to find out how the erroneous paragraphs “crept in” in the affidavit and to “fix responsibility.” This was being done at the behest of Ms. Gandhi.

Preliminary inquiry has shown that the affidavit was vetted by the Ministry of Culture and Law.

Asked about the party’s stand on Lord Rama, Mr. Singhvi said:

“Rama was irrelevant to the adjudication in this proceeding before the Supreme Court. The Congress believes in what the Constitution of India says: that India is a socialist, secular, republic.”

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