Karnataka governor HR Bhardwaj defends Robert Vadra

NEW DELHI: Karnataka governor HR Bhardwaj's role as a constitutional authority did not come in the way of his itch to defend members of Nehru-Gandhi family. In an unusual move, Bhardwaj took up cudgels on behalf of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and termed charges of his property transactions with DLF as false.

"Like other charges made against the Nehru-Gandhi family, these will also fall like nine pins," the governor told reporters in Bangalore. "Many allegations were levelled against the Gandhi family even in the past. Indira Gandhi was attacked. But she had a towering personality and fought back. Morarji bhai made so many cases against her but they fell like nine pins," the governor told reporters.

Bhardwaj, a former Union law minister, was replying to a question on the allegations levelled by social activists Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan of India Against Corruption that realty major DLF favoured Robert Vadra. On Kejriwal's protests on corruption-related issues, Bhardwaj asked how far people of the country could face civil society members like him and Prashant Bhushan who are "taking law in to their hands and dictating terms to solve problems".

He also used the occasion to send out a message that a person like him was better equipped to deal with the activists. "If I were the law minister, I would not allow anybody to do my job of drafting the law by another person. I invited all the major NGOs in my career from the time of Rajiv Gandhi to Manmohan Singh (and tried solving problems through negotiations)," he said. A team that included law minister Salman Khurshid had negotiated with Team Anna on the Lokpal bill. "Is Kejriwal an expert? Why do these people talk on legislative affairs?" the governor asked.