Rows won’t affect panel work: Pranab

Earlier in the day,Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh also sought to mollify Santosh Hegde,saying that he had at no point of time attacked him but had only raised a question that if the best Lokayukta in Karnataka cannot stop “rampant corruption” in the state,then a serious thought should be given to the system. Singh also rejected suggestions that the Congress and some of its leaders were behind the attacks on civil society members.

Singh had earlier made a veiled attack on the Karnataka Lokayukta,pointing out his inability to control corruption in the state. Reacting strongly to his remarks,Hegde had threatened to quit the panel,saying that he would take a final call on it after meeting other civil society members on the panel in New Delhi on Saturday.

Social activists had also dubbed the surfacing of a controversial CD as also disclosures about controversial land deals involving former law minister Shanti Bhushan and his family as a smear campaign launched by the Congress to discredit them. Congress spokespersons and leaders had echoed Digvijaya Singh’s views,with UP state unit chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi going to the extent of demanding the withdrawal of Shanti Bhushan from the panel.

In response to Hazare’s letter in this regard,National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi had clarified that she does not “support nor encourage the politics of smear campaign”.

Congress sources said while the party still believes that members of the panel have to measure up to the yardstick of morality,the ruling dispensation does not want to be seen as trying to destabilise the process of drafting of the Lokpal Bill by the joint committee.

Even as the ruling party sought to soothe the frayed tempers of civil society representatives,the party made a veiled attack on Hazare for his praise of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Reacting to reports about an IPS officer’s affidavit implicating Modi in post-Godhra riots,Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said,“This is a known fact that it was not riot that had happened in Gujarat but a state-sponsored terrorism. We appeal to all those who praise the Gujarat Chief Minister to take a look at the PIL filed in the Supreme Court and the plight of those killed in the carnage.”

Asked if he was referring to Hazare who had praised Modi,Tewari said,“I am not pointing at any specific person but appealing to all those industrialists,social workers and actors,who have praised Modi in the last nine years,to look at this PIL,the report of Nanavati Commission and similar PILs filed in the Supreme Court,and introspect.”