Courtesy: CNN-IBN Website. For full interview, click here.
From this interview, the Communists in India act on one directive - be always against BJP. If Prathibha Patil's integrity is questioned, this guy talks about L.K. Advani, who isn't even contesting the presidential elections. Kitchen Cabinet of Sonia Gandhi is working well! And pity that the Communists have come to this level.
The following questions are the real peaches! Excerpts:
Karan Thapar: You call them lies, but lets explore some of them in detail. Let us begin with the Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank. She was it’s chairperson and later its director. And even when she hasn’t held those posts, she has been the critical person running the bank.
In 2003, when the Reserve Bank of India closed the bank, it commented – “allowing the bank to carry on banking business would be detrimental to the interest of present and future shareholders and hence it’s license is hereby cancelled.”
Should a woman who virtually presided over a failed bank be the next President of India?
A B Bardhan: Well, so many institutions fail. That’s quite another question. But she was the chairperson only for a certain period.
Karan Thapar: I am afraid I have to correct you.
A B Bardhan: Facts have been proved before.
Karan Thapar: You are talking about facts, let me draw your attention to Board Resolution number 23 of the Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank passed on January 22, 2002. It authorised Pratibha Patil to appoint the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive. So even when she wasn’t the chairperson, she was running the bank.
A B Bardhan: As the promoter and most important person there.
Karan Thapar: Regardless of what capacity, she was running the bank. When she fails, she takes responsibility for the failure.
A B Bardhan: I think the full answer has been given. Documents have shown that she was the chairperson only for a certain period. But if there’s any responsibility that accrues to her, the Reserve Bank is there to take note of it.
Karan Thapar: A woman who presided over a failed bank is the right choice for the President of India? That’s a bizarre decision.
A B Bardhan: A person who was charged with a hawala transaction, a person who was guilty of destroying a masjid (mosque), whose case was in court, wanted to be a Deputy Prime Minister.
Karan Thapar: So you have chosen Pratibha Patil in competition with L K Advani?
A B Bardhan: It is only he and his party who are levelling all these charges. It’s a fascistic trick to throw sufficient mud at a person so that some of it might stick.
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Karan Thapar: But these statements were made much earlier. Let me quote to you a letter written by the President of the Bank, the Vice-President of the Bank and Secretary, all three top officials, on March 13, 2002. At least five years before her nomination, even before she became governor of Rajasthan. This is what they wrote – “There is a threat to our lives and to the lives of our family members from you. You have already communicated this to us in our meeting with you. If something happens to us accidentally or otherwise, you will be responsible.”
Can you as a formal general secretary of the AITUC support as President a woman who threatens allegedly trade union leaders?
A B Bardhan: What are you trying to say Karan? I know of people who threaten, conspire.
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Karan Thapar: You see it as coincidence that while she ran the bank, her family members got loans and then defaulted?
A B Bardhan: My bother commits some crime, and I’m responsible for it? I’m not my brother’s keeper.
Karan Thapar: But it’s a different matter if you happen to be heading the bank at the time when the brother gets loans or if you’re effectively running the bank. That’s what I am pointing out.
A B Bardhan: She was the head only for sometime.
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Karan Thapar: Speaking in the Maharashtra Assembly as health minister on December 10, 1975, Mrs Pratibha Patil said we are thinking of forcible sterilisation of people with hereditary diseases. First of all, do you approve of forcible sterilisation?
A B Bardhan: I don't, I don't, but that doesn't mean I agree with everything she does or says.
Karan Thapar: Let’s explore this a little further. People with hereditary diseases include people with heart disorders, infertility, diabetes, even people with bad sight and bad hearing. Should such people be forcibly sterilised?
A B Bardhan: I don't think there should be forcible sterilisation of at any stage.
Karan Thapar: So, you completely disagree with her?
A B Bardhan: I disagreed with this whole policy of Congress at one stage.
Karan Thapar: Then how come such a woman who said this in the Assembly - it is recorded in the Assembly records - is your nominee for President?
A B Bardhan: She is not going to forcibly sterilise anybody, she is not going to follow those policies, and she is not called upon to.
Karan Thapar: But she stood for it. She’s never recanted. She hasn’t apologised.
A B Bardhan: We are electing a President within the framework of the Indian Constitution.
Karan Thapar: But she still has views and beliefs. She has not recanted or apologised.
A B Bardhan: I’m not called upon to support her views and beliefs.
Karan Thapar: Should she clear the air and recant and apologise for this?
A B Bardhan: Why should she?
Karan Thapar: So she stands by it and you are happy to support her?
A B Bardhan: Many wrong things, mistaken things have been said and done by the Congress and more so by the BJP.
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Karan Thapar: Let me call upon your attention to something that she declared on June 17. She has made it clear that she believes in divine spirits. On June 17 she said that she had had a conversation with a man who died in 1969 because the man had manifested himself in the body of a woman.
You are laughing because it’s hilarious. But do you acknowledge that such a woman should be President?
A B Bardhan: Most of your leaders be the Congress or the BJP believe in godmen, spirits and astrologists.
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Karan Thapar: They say Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion. Doesn’t that apply to the President in India?
A B Bardhan: President of India is a Constitutional head.
Karan Thapar: So it can be suspected?
A B Bardhan: A Constitutional head is not called upon to lay policy.
Karan Thapar: The Constitutional head is the symbol of the country. Should the symbol of the country be under suspicion?
A B Bardhan: The Constitutional head is the symbol of the country whose policies will be laid down by the government.
Karan Thapar: The one thing that the Communist Party has is moral authority. No longer do you have political influence. Why are you squandering your moral authority supporting a woman who is not fit for the top turf? Why are don’t you admit you made a mistake nominating her?
A B Bardhan: Our moral authority is demonstrated in the fact that we insisted that no communal person or belonging to a communal party, to the RSS and the BJP should be nominated.
Karan Thapar: So you can have a potentially corrupt person, instead you can have a woman who stands for forcible sterilisation, or have an orthodox woman who believes in spirits.
A B Bardhan: She has more than 40 years of political career.
Karan Thapar: Alright Mr Bardhan, you can have the last word. A pleasure talking to you.
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Though this show isn't original in concept, I like Karan Thapar and his pre-interview research. And Netas still live! *Sigh*
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