Daily apologizes to Shanti Bhushan for article gaffe
PTI | Dec 13, 2013, 07.48 PM IST
Daily apologizes to Shanti Bhushan for article gaffe
'Mail Today' carried an article in the name of Shanti Bhushan which was critical of Aam Admi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal.
NEW DELHI: In a bizarre gaffe, a newspaper here published an article on Friday purported to have been written by former Union law minister Shanti Bhushan which later turned out to be fake, prompting the daily to lodge an FIR with the police.
'Mail Today' carried an article in the name of Shanti Bhushan which was critical of Aam Admi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, saying he might be a spoiler for BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, drawing an angry denial by the noted lawyer who called it a "big conspiracy".
Bhushan said "It is a forged article. I have asked the editor of the daily to file an FIR to find out who is behind it."
"This is part of a big political conspiracy to discredit AAP and Arvind Kejriwal. It is possible that a BJP member could be behind it."
He said he has asked the editor of the daily to file an FIR and publish an apology.
When contacted Mail Today said "We are filing an FIR to ascertain the facts and to see who is behind this mischief. We have verbally apologized to Mr Bhushan. We will be sending a formal apology to him. There was no malice or malafide in publishing the article."
o o o The supposedly Fake article follows o o o
Mail Today, December 13, 2013
Kejriwal on course to ruin 2014 for BJP
by Shanti Bhushan
ARVIND Kejriwal might prove to be a spoiler for the BJP bandwagon in 2014.
During the Delhi assembly elections, Kejriwal and party made it quite clear that they were opposed to the BJP more than the Congress. Kejriwal very cleverly targeted BJP using the corruption plank, equating BJP and Congress on one hand and on the other hand meeting Muslim leaders to acquire Muslim support on a secular plank knowing that Muslims, who were notionally against the BJP, are now were fed up of the Congress and seeking a new platform to stand against the BJP.
Anna
Kejriwal and his party are the product of ‘ Anna’ Hazare’s movement, which erupted against the Congress’s colossal corruption and patronage to corruption. Later on, however, the movement, which was essentially against the misdeeds of Manmohan Singh’s government, took a different turn and was made to look as if it were against the BJP too on purpose, by some vested interests, with the active support of Arvind Kejriwal. Once it was done, it confused the people and the movement, which started with a bang, ended up slowly with a whimper. The sheen of the movement was gone. It put Kejriwal and company out of a job.
But Kejriwal would not accept defeat. He came out with the decision of entering into electoral politics, which he had claimed to be stoutly against. However Anna Hazare did not consent to the idea, and it was a big dampener to Keriwal’s ambitions. So Kejriwal defied Anna Hazare and formed a political outfit by the name of Aam Admi Party, giving it a colour of an anti- corruption unit against both the national parties, instead of just opposed to the Congress against whom the movement was initiated in the first place. He intentionally and mischievously raised the bogey of Gadkari’s corruption and bracketed him with the Congress party’s known corrupt politicians to show his ‘ secular’ credentials.
The BJP’s name was sullied to please a particular community. Otherwise the BJP was nowhere near power so there was no question of them having been involved in corruption.
Arvind Kejriwal took full advantage of the BJP’s complacency in ignoring AAP. He was preparing his ground ingeniously, working silently against the BJP and outwardly showing his opposition to the Congress. He exploited the sentiments of the people and gained phenomenal success at elections, cleverly shifting the blame for rampant cor- ruption on the BJP too along with the Congress.
He did it on purpose to attract minority votes. Kejriwal showed exemplary skills in election management and deserved credit for his forthrightness, his courage and his hard work.
Corruption
Riding high after his phenomenal success, he announced his arrival on the national scene. His crusade against corruption is laudable, but governance does not mean eradication of corruption only, as Kejriwal thinks and would have us believe. There are other many threats staring the nation, because of misdeeds of this present Congress government.
The economy is in shambles, despite or one may say because of the economic wizard we have as our prime minister. Ever- increasing prices of essential commodities and petroleum products for no valid reason is threatening the life of common people. Nobody knows the extent to which such price rise would continue. The Congress government mandarins seem to have no clue as to what has been happening, let alone taking any measures to control the rising prices. Internal strife, increasing crimes particularly against women, lawlessness in the country as a whole indicate the total failure of law & order machinery.
And the biggest threat the nation is staring is external aggression, which has undermined country’s security. China is surrounding India with aggressive postures much beyond the tolerance of any sovereign state. Pakistan is daringly abetting insurgency and rebellion in Kashmir, sponsoring terror in India and breaching our borders on a regular basis and our Prime Minister as a helpless onlooker has failed to take any appropriate measures. He always resorts to dialogues with the neighboring countries who are behaving as enemies, without realising that talks or dialogues may avoid the aggression but the aggression can not be talked about. It has to be met with full force at your disposal, if you are a selfrespecting nation.
Governance
All these issues concern the governance of the nation and need to be addressed effectively without wasting time. This is why it is essential to rid the nation of this inactive and failed government of Manmohan Singh which has become a liability. And it is why Narendra Modi is becoming the people’s choice because he has shown the acumen and guts both to solve the nation’s problems and restore the nation’s pride. Kejriwal seem completely oblivious to governance in a larger perspective.
Moreover he does not seem too bothered about the practicability of his lofty ideas of governance through ‘ Janata Durbar’. At least he realises that so called Janata or Aam Admi choose their representatives through elections to deliver goods for them. So as an elected representative he can not throw the responsibility of governance back to them, as he has been shouting from the roof tops that it is the janata which would decide what to do and what not.
His priority is seemingly to destabilise the political system of the country — which is well established and need no replacement — by discrediting political parties, particularly the BJP and stop Modi from coming to power irrespective of the consequences for the nation. Because once Modi comes to power his shop would be wound up, and his dreams whatever he has and his lofty ideas would be shattered beyond repair. . In a national scenario like this Arvind Kejriwal and his party does not fit into the scheme of things. But his popularity among the masses can’t be denied. He is a good person and for the masses, he is honest too. His decision to jump into the fray in the national election might pose a serious threat to BJP. His lofty ideas about governance by the masses are neither understandable nor backed by history. His idea of fighting elections does not seem to be providing good governance, but to derail the system first. And then he thinks a new system would evolve. He is clever enough to play the emotional card to get the people’s support. Therefore he is a dangerous antagonist the BJP needs to be wary of.
The writer is a former law minister, a former member of the BJP and a founding member of the Aam Admi Party
