New Delhi: Congress on Tuesday said that the Government dropped its move to name a judge to head the commission set up to probe 'snoopgate', as it did not want to give an impression of political vendetta to go around as suggested by the allies.
"I talked to the Home Minister in the morning. Nobody should feel that they are carrying out a political vendetta. If there has been a delay and then somebody feels that there is some vendetta, we do not want any such charge of vendetta against us. The allies have their own views. "That is why we did not move ahead. What was wrong in that. Let the next government carry it out," Law Minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal said at the AICC briefing.
Late last year, the Union Cabinet had decided to set up the Commission to probe the snooping of a young woman by Gujarat police allegedly at the instance of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. A controversy had broken out last week when senior ministers including Sibal and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had told the media that a judge would be named into the surveillance, which was dubbed as 'snoopgate', before May 16 when the counting of votes in the Lok Sabha elections will be taken up.
The announcement came under severe attack from the BJP which slammed the UPA saying it was practising vendetta out of desperation of defeat in the elections. BJP questioned the move now saying the original decision of the Cabinet was taken in December and they could not decide on a judge all these days. The party also questioned the need for such a probe when the state government itself had ordered a commission of inquiry into the same subject.
However, what apparently took the government by surprise was the opposition from its allies-NCP and National Conference-which questioned appointment of the judge in the "dying days" of UPA-II. If setting up of the Commission to probe snooping was not a vengeful act, how can appointing a judge to head the panel be vendetta? asked a senior Congress leader on condition of anonymity.
He said the move to leave the decision of appointment of a judge on the next government should not make BJP overjoyed. The Congress leader pointed out that after setting up a Commission to probe the issue the next step would have been to appoint a judge for it, as was done by the government. Any citizen can approach a court of law if the next government failed to appoint a judge for the enquiry, he noted.
The surveillence has been an offence under the Communications Act, which is a Central act and the Government cannot keep the issue pending for long, he added. Besides, the Congress will pursue the matter from Gujarat also where an inquiry has been instituted by the Narendra Modi government.