harpoon
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NEW DELHI: Embroiled in a CD controversy, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi today resigned as chairman of a parliamentary committee and party spokesperson in a damage control exercise ahead of the resumption of the budget session tomorrow.
53- year-old Singhvi, an eminent lawyer and a Rajya Sabha member, sent a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi informing her of his decision ten days after circulation of a CD purportedly involving him.
"I have done this only to prevent even the slightest possible parliamentary disruption regarding the purported CDs being circulated about me.
"Since I am a disciplined party soldier, I did not think it fit to subject the party to any inconvenience on this account. All allegations are patently baseless and false," he said in a statement.
Singhvi acquired high profile after the committee headed by him came out with a report on the Lokpal last year on whose recommendation the government brought a legislation on the issue.
Singhvi, who was taken off the AICC briefing last week, said that "canards and baseless" allegations were being spread about alleged inappropriate conversations in the alleged CD.
"People inimically opposed to me, who have assiduously spent over ten days hearing, seeing, amplifying and distilling the CD found no vestige of any reference, not even remotely, to any illegality, corrupt practice or wrongdoing. "Specifically, some sections of the print and visual media are spreading a falsehood simply by repetition and hearsay that there is a reference in the CD to the promise of any post. No one has heard any such reference in the CD. There is none simply because it does not exist. It is pure imagination, wishful thinking and sensationalism," he said.
Singhvi said the canard was spread simply to give the issue a public interest flavour since otherwise the contents of the CD, "assuming them to be true, (which they certainly are not), would disclose only something private and consensual giving a cause of action only to aggrieved family members (who have stood completely by me) and to no one else".
53- year-old Singhvi, an eminent lawyer and a Rajya Sabha member, sent a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi informing her of his decision ten days after circulation of a CD purportedly involving him.
"I have done this only to prevent even the slightest possible parliamentary disruption regarding the purported CDs being circulated about me.
"Since I am a disciplined party soldier, I did not think it fit to subject the party to any inconvenience on this account. All allegations are patently baseless and false," he said in a statement.
Singhvi acquired high profile after the committee headed by him came out with a report on the Lokpal last year on whose recommendation the government brought a legislation on the issue.
Singhvi, who was taken off the AICC briefing last week, said that "canards and baseless" allegations were being spread about alleged inappropriate conversations in the alleged CD.
"People inimically opposed to me, who have assiduously spent over ten days hearing, seeing, amplifying and distilling the CD found no vestige of any reference, not even remotely, to any illegality, corrupt practice or wrongdoing. "Specifically, some sections of the print and visual media are spreading a falsehood simply by repetition and hearsay that there is a reference in the CD to the promise of any post. No one has heard any such reference in the CD. There is none simply because it does not exist. It is pure imagination, wishful thinking and sensationalism," he said.
Singhvi said the canard was spread simply to give the issue a public interest flavour since otherwise the contents of the CD, "assuming them to be true, (which they certainly are not), would disclose only something private and consensual giving a cause of action only to aggrieved family members (who have stood completely by me) and to no one else".
