New Delhi, (ANI): While many fall prey to obstacles like cold temperatures and high wind-chill, but in front of seven-ye..
New Delhi, July 3: The returning officer has cleared Pranab
Mukherjee’s candidature for President but the BJP has alleged that
UPA’s presidential hopeful “fabricated” a letter he submitted to
the Calcutta-based Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) after his
candidacy was announced.
The BJP circulated two letters, which it claimed carried signatures
attributed to Mukherjee but did not match. (See graphic in the
end).
The fundamental question is whether Mukherjee signed the
resignation letter on June 20 — eight days before he filed the
nomination — as he and the ISI have said or if it was backdated.
Presidential candidates are not expected to hold offices of profit.
Although Mukherjee did not accept any honorarium from the ISI, the
post itself is counted as an office of profit by the
government.
The resignation letter furnished by the BJP is dated June 20 and it
also mentions acceptance by the ISI president and eminent
scientist, M.G.K Menon. The letter features a single-word reply
attributed to Menon, stating “accepted”, with his purported
signature, also dated June 20.
Till late tonight, Menon could not be contacted to confirm the
veracity of the noting attributed to him.
The ISI authorities stood by Mukherjee today. “I have the original
letter of his resignation in my custody. I am very familiar with
his signature. We have no problem whatsoever with it. Therefore,
there is nothing we need to do in this,” said director Bimal Roy
this evening.
“I have worked with him officially for eight years (since September
2004 when Mukherjee took over as chairperson) and I have personally
seen him put his signature on a number of documents for the
institution. The signature in the resignation letter is the one I
am familiar with. To me there is no controversy here,” Roy
added.
The BJP said the other letter it flashed was the one Mukherjee
filed before the returning officer today explaining his resignation
from the ISI.
The BJP is mulling four options: move the Supreme Court to
challenge the validity of Mukherjee’s nomination, petition the
Election Commission, file an election petition before the apex
court after the election and “go to the people”.
BJP sources conceded that it was “highly improbable” that the court
or the Election Commission would take cognisance of the charges and
stall the election process midway unless clinching evidence of
wrongdoing can be furnished.
Filing a post-poll plaint was the “obvious choice”.
But the BJP sources stressed that by flagging the allegations at
the start of their discourse, they might have put Mukherjee and the
Congress on the “backfoot”.
“Our main objective is to target Mukherjee and the UPA government’s
diminishing credibility in people’s minds. The Congress was
celebrating the support it picked up for Mukherjee from across the
political spectrum as a major electoral victory. We want to project
it as a dubious victory,” a source said.
Mukherjee’s counter-statement placed today sought to answer the
objections raised by rival candidate P.A. Sangma, prime among which
was that the former finance minister had not relinquished the ISI
chairpersonship. Sangma’s objections were rejected by the returning
officer.
The BJP also raised doubts over Menon’s terse response and said it
buttressed its “apprehensions” about the “authenticity” of
Mukherjee’s letter. It claimed the letter was ostensibly
“manufactured” after Sangma’s objections because Menon alone was
not empowered to accept Mukherjee’s resignation.
Mukherjee, the BJP said, was appointed by a board of directors and
it was “doubtful” if the members were aware of his move.
It demanded that Menon should “clarify to the people of India”
whether he had received such a document, how it reached him and
whether he had accepted the resignation by affixing his signature
on the letter itself.
Addressing the media, Ananth Kumar and Satpal Jain, the BJP’s chief
representatives campaigning for Sangma, said it was unfortunate
that a person aspiring to such a high office should be indulging
“in an illegal activity”.
Kumar, a BJP general secretary, added that the “onus of committing
this illegal act not only lay on Mukherjee but also on an eminent
person like Menon”.
The Telegraph
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