Congress Not Singled Out For I-T Action, Gowda Tells Uf Leaders

Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda explained to his United Front colleagues on Saturday that there was nothing unusual about the income tax notices to Congress MPs and the All India Congress Committee (AICC), as similar notices had been served to many other MPs, including Union finance minister P Chidambaram and other Union ministers.

Gowda told his colleagues in the United Front standing committee on Saturday that the income tax notice was served to not only the Congress, but also to three other parties: the BJP, the Janata Dal and the CPI(M).

He said that the view that Congressmen were singled out for initiating various investigations had no basis, as most of the cases were pursued at the behest of courts and he could do nothing about them.

Talking about the investigation into the Tanwar murder case, Gowda said that despite Congress leader Rajesh Pilot's insistence to pursue the matter he had not taken any decision on it.

Gowda said that Rajesh Pilot wrote to him thrice, asking him to pursue the case. Each time I replied that I may be hauled up later for this, as the issue concerns the president of the Congress which is supporting our government. Moreover, my predecessor PV Narasimha Rao had specifically ordered not to proceed on the case, Gowda told the meeting.

Later on, it was at the insistence of the High Court, because of a public interest litigation, that the case was opened up and because of the court's directive that a special investigative team was constitued to look into the matter, Gowda said.

The meeting reviewed the latest political sitiuation and expressed concern over the remarks of Congress president Sitaram Kesari criticising Gowda. Kesri had said that Gowda was a coward and communalist.

After such a statement from the leader of such an important party, we decided not to send a formal letter to the Congress reconsidering its decision to withdraw support, a UF standing committee member said.

All informal talks which had created some amount of goodwill and a ground for hope had to be stopped after the statement, he added. CPI general secretary AB Bardhan, who was asked to meet senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar, decided to wait for a few more days before some amount of goodwill was restored. Bardhan is likely to meet Pawar today.

It was also decided at the meeting not to have any formal talks with Congress leaders. Formal talks, if at all, would be held only after April 8, one UF leader said.