Bhushans under a cloud again

Sonia tells Hazare she is opposed to smear campaign against committee

Meanwhile, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in a reply to anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare’s letter, reiterated her commitment to Lokpal Bill even as she said she was opposed to a smear campaign against the drafting committee members from civil society.

Replying to Hazare’s earlier letter in which he had urged her to stop the “smear campaign” by her partymen against the Lokpal bill drafting committe, she remarked: “As for statements appearing in the media, let me assure you that I neither support nor encourage the politics of smear campaign.”

Bhushan, already under attack from different quarters over the last one week,  sunk deeper into controversy as it was revealed that the Mayawati government had early this year allotted 10,000 sqm farmland in Noida, near Delhi, to Shanti Bhushan and a similar plot to his son Jayant Bhushan, who had appeared in a case against Mayawati earlier.

The reports of the land allotment came on a day when Shanti Bhushan sent a legal notice and sought a public apology from Congress leader Digvijay Singh for giving a television interview casting aspersions on his integrity.

Shanti Bhushan reacted sharply to reports that he was favoured in land allotment and said: “To suggest that the allotment has been obtained from any discretionary quota is totally false and misleading. So far, possession has not been delivered, nor the lease deal executed. It is only after the plot has been made approachable by laying roads that possession would be delivered and the lease executed.”

Bhushan said if there had been any arbitrariness, the allotments should be cancelled.
Refuting the allegation of favours from Mayawati, Bhushan said: “Both myself and my son Jayant have been fighting cases against Mayawati in courts and the question of obtaining favours from her or her government does not arise at all.”

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Reeta Bahuguna and Samajawadi Party (SP) leader Mohan Singh demanded that Bhushan withdraw from the joint committee which has five members each from the government and social groups.