It is surely too great a coincidence that a CD with purported conversations between the co-chair of the Lok Pal Drafting Committee, Shanti Bhushan and Samajwadi Party leader found its way into media rooms just a night before the first meeting of the Drafting Committee. In a press conference, Prashant Bhushan clearly demonstrated how this anonymously circulated CD had been created by lifting and splicing conversations from earlier recordings. This however was not enough to dissuade the former SP leader—whose seamy reputation as fixer is undisputed—nor the Congress leaders from throwing muck at the Bhushans.
Top journalists (at least one of who has been implicated in unsavoury wheelings and dealings in cabinet formation) are relishing in seeking the resignation of the Bhushans from the Drafting Committee. Amar Singh, in political oblivion for long, has been warmly welcomed back to primetime TV—and we have the bizarre situation of the epitome of moral and political corruption in this country pointing fingers at perhaps the cleanest public figures. Digvijay Singh is demanding that the father and son must be held up to the same scrutiny that they wish the politicians to be subjected to, conveniently erasing the not so thin line between motivated, malicious and patently false charges—increasingly perceived by the public as tactics of blackmail—and between documentary evidence of corruption against those who occupy high office and influence policies and administration. By sharing the same platform in a public meeting in Farrukhabad (U.P) and by lavishing praise on each other, Amar Singh and Digvijay Singh have of course only confirmed the complicity between the Congress and Amar Singh—reiterated further by the blatant certificate of genuineness handed out by the government CFSL to the CD.
Prahsant Bhushan has not only been one of the leading crusaders against corruption, but also a friend and supporter of peoples’ movements and struggles everywhere in the country. The anger of the corporate media and the state is therefore understandable. We stand in solidarity with Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan and reiterate our faith in their commitment in fighting against corporate loot and corruption.