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Shahid K Abbas in New Delhi
The Congress Party on Friday expressed 'serious reservation' against what it described ruling Bharatiya Janata Party -- National Democratic Alliance government's 'onslaught' on the media, saying it would raise the issue in the ensuing monsoon session of Parliament.
Addressing a press conference Congress spokesman S Jaipal Reddy said that the 'ongoing harassment' of the Time newsmagazine correspondent and staffers of tehelka.com and Outlook magazine was an 'unprecedented assault on the freedom of the press and an exercise to browbeat the media'.
Referring to the Time magazine's controversial article he said, "The affairs relating to the article are getting murkier and murkier and we are all aware that the Prime Minister's Office has chosen to repudiate everything alleged in the said article about the prime minister."
"But, the latest turn in the story was that the correspondent of the Time magazine has not only refused to retract, but in fact emphatically stood by every part of his article," he said.
Asserting that in view of the situation created by the 'firm reaffirmation' of the contents of the article by the correspondent of Time magazine and 'loud denial' by the PMO, the people of the country have a right to know about the actual truth of the contents.
He insisted that one way in which 'the facts' can be either established or refuted and the damage done to the prestige of the prime minister could be restored was by Vajpayee filing a libel suit against the magazine.
"The BJP-led government was seeking to convert our democracy into a police state and the way in which Alex Perry has been subjected to harassment and humiliation has brought disgrace to our democracy and we do not still know as to why Perry was summoned and quizzed so many times," Jaipal said.
He argued that if there was nothing irregular about the residential status of Perry it was wrong in the first place for the government to have summoned him.
Stressing that government needs to take the country into confidence about it, Jaipal insisted that it was clear that the exercise was intended to 'browbeat the media' and this is not an 'isolated case'.
Referring to the tehelka issue, the Congress spokesman said that since March 20, 2000, when the portal had unearthed corruption in defense deals, the way the company and its correspondents have been harassed 'is an unprecedented story of assault on the freedom of press'.
"The way the raids by the CBI on the office of the tehelka.com and the house of its correspondent have been conducted are only one part of its unending saga. It is important to note that since the tehelka exposure no FIR has been lodged against Bangaru Laxman, Jaya Jaitley or George Fernandes."
He said, "What happened to tehelka, suggests that as long as the BJP was in office the culprits would not be investigated, but rather the investigators would be scrutinised."
Expressing shock at the manner in which some of the CBI officials had tried to 'manhandle and interrogate' the tehelka lawyer, Reddy said, "We would also like to recall the manner in which the proprietor of the Outlook magazine was subjected to all kind of hassles. This unveils the semi-fascist face of the BJP."
Responding to a question that the Time story also refers to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and why the Congress was not filing a libel suit, Jaipal said, "We did not seek any apology from the author. But the PMO has sought an apology."
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