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Congress distances itself from Rao, Buta

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

The Congress has almost disowned former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao and former home minister Buta Singh, who were sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment by Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke on Thursday in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery case.

Official spokesman Ajit Jogi read out a brief statement on the verdict handed down by the additional district and sessions judge and refused to take any questions from the waiting reporters. In fact, after making his statement twice each in English and Hindi, Jogi almost ran to his room in the Congress headquarters.

"In response to the judgment handed down by the special court against Shri P V Narasimha Rao, at the outset the Congress party would like to reaffirm our esteem for the independence of the Indian judiciary. As a political party we are committed to the rule of law. Therefore we are duty-bound to respect the verdict of the court. Doubtless Shri P V Narasimha Rao has the right to appeal. Doubtless he will invoke that right. The judicial process will continue and the law will take its course," his statement said.

There was not a word about Buta Singh. Later, an office-bearer, on condition of anonymity, said, "We have issued a statement. We will now wait and watch its reaction amongst the Congress party cadre."

Congress leaders were holding a meeting on economic issues at the headquarters when Judge Bharihoke pronounced his historic sentence. Asked for his reaction, Madhavrao Scindia, deputy leader of the party in Parliament, expressed surprise that the sentence had been pronounced.

Buta Singh later said he was innocent. "We will appeal against the judgment in the high court. I am sure we will be proved right," he told rediff.com

He continued to remain defiant, saying he had done nothing wrong in gathering support for the government headed by P V Narasimha Rao and would do the same if an occasion arose in future for another government.

"This is part of parliamentary democratic functioning and I will do it again if I am asked to do it again. This case should have never gone to a court of law but should have been dealt with by a committee of parliamentarians," he said.

Singh accused the central government of using the case for its own political ends. Asked if he would resign from membership of the Lok Sabha, he said there was no reason to do so until he had exhausted all avenues of judicial appeal. "I have the right to appeal and I am going to make full use of it," he said.

According to a source close to the former home minister, some Congress politicians who had been let off on grounds of insufficient evidence had visited Singh and expressed solidarity with him and promised to take up the matter in party fora.

Unlike at the time of his conviction, Singh appeared to have taken the sentence in his stride and was unmoved. In fact, some of his supporters even distributed sweets to celebrate his release on bail.

R K Anand and I U Khan, advocates for Narasimha Rao, were closeted in a meeting to draft an appeal against the verdict. Khan told rediff.com that they would soon be filing the appeal in the Delhi high court. According to him, it could take them three or four days as they had to study the 19-page judgment carefully.

Welcoming the judgment, S M Khan, spokesman for the Central Bureau of Investigation, said officers of the agency were also studying the verdict and would do whatever the judge had directed.

"If there are specific directions to the agency, we are duty-bound to carry them out. We will now register a case against others as directed by the court and try to recover the money given to the JMM leaders as bribe. We might also consider an appeal against the acquittal of some on grounds of insufficient evidence," he said.

The JMM bribery case: The full coverage

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