Manish Tewari apologises, but Anna firm on defamation suit

NEW DELHI: Less than a fortnight after he termed anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare as "corrupt from head to toe," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari publicly apologised to the Gandhian, besides appealing to him to end his 10-day-old fast. However, the apology did not cut much ice with Hazare, who is firm on slapping a defamation suit against Tewari.

"I know some of my recent utterances have caused hurt to Mr Hazare. I regret the same and I would like to appeal to him as a citizen of this country, to end his fast," Tewari told newspersons here. "In the course of political cut and thrust, certain things are inadvertently said which cause pain," he explained.

Tewari's August 14 verbal assault on Anna was not unilateral. The line was cleared by senior party leaders before he went ballistic at a Congress news conference, telecast by news channels, two days before Hazare embarked on his fast unto death. On the same day, Kapil Sibal had launched a similar attack on Anna, but from a different platform.

Tewari's change of heart may not have been too sudden, given that his caustic comments against Hazare had touched a raw chord with the public. Hazare's popularity as the face of the people's movement against corruption had reduced Tewari to a 'villain', with Hazare supporters taking regular digs at his intemperate remarks.

There was disapproval even within Congress against the spokesperson's statements. During the debate on the Hazare issue in the Lok Sabha last week, nearly every speaker slammed Tewari for his frontal attack. On Wednesday, Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi conceded in the Rajya Sabha that he felt ashamed at his party members' derogatory statements about Hazare: An obvious reference to Tewari, Sibal, Digvijaya Singh and Virbhadra Singh.

Tewari had on August 14 termed Anna as "corrupt", saying that the Sawant Commission report had "ripped apart the moral core of Hazare as it found him steeped in corruption from head to toe." He also alleged that Team Anna comprised "armchair fascists, overground Maoists and closet anarchists, all funded by invisible donors". Virbhadra Singh recently said that even a "madari" (street performer) could collect crowds. While Sibal termed Hazare's fast as "undemocratic and unconstitutional," Digvijaya Singh had accused Hazare's Hind Swaraj Trust of corrupt practices and asked him to "follow the tenets of the very Constitution that has given him the right of protest."

Hazare's lawyer Milind Pawar, who declared that a defamation case would be filed against the Congress spokesperson in a Pune court next week, however, said, "we will file a case against Manish Tewari under Section 500 of the IPC for defamatory remarks he made against Hazare on August 14, describing him as a corrupt person at a public forum," he told news agencies in Pune. Pawar said Hazare's secretary had given him the go ahead for filing a criminal complaint against Tewari. Asked why the matter was being pressed by the Hazare camp even after Tewari had publicly expressed regret for his remarks, the lawyer said the acceptance of guilt on his part did not mean that he should go unpunished for his "insolent" utterances.