Law Minister Salman Khurshid’s efforts to come clean on the allegations regarding the functioning of his NGO today saw him address a stormy press conference where he produced photographs and press clippings to show that the NGO, Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust had indeed held camps to distribute equipment to disabled people in 17 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
He also sought to silence questions being raised about the NGO with a defamation case in Delhi High Court and threats of a case to be filed abroad against the TV channel which had first aired a report about it.
"I will see you in court,'' he threatened the reporter from the TV channel even as he expressed inability to explain why signatures on affidavits presented by his NGO as proof of the camps were forged.
He said that needed investigation, giving fillip to the demands for his resignation being made by anti -corruption activist and now politician Arvind Kejriwal .
Khurshid who refrained from taking on Kejriwal throughout the press conference said he would resign provided the head of the TV channel that showed the story on his NGO also resigned till the probe was over.
Kejriwal has accused Khurshid’s NGO of showing forged affidavits as proof of the camps . He was backed by documents and other evidence cited by a TV channel owned by India Today group as well as a draft report by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Kejriwal has been staging a protest on Parliament Street for the past three days including a day in police detention over the matter.
The allegations which shifted the spot light of his anti-corruption attacks from Congress president Sonia Gandjhi’s son n law Robert Vadra to the Law Minister have left the Law Minister appearing isolated in the party having to defend himself with little support from the party.
Khurshid said he was as clueless as anyone as to why signatures were forged on a document that said camps were held. He said he was clueless because he knew that the camps were held in all 17 districts. ''So who would benefit by forging signatures if not me?'' he asked.He implied that there was a conspiracy to trap him and the signatures stood only to benefit this unknown adversary.
He said that the NGO that is run by his wife Loius Khurshid had in fact asked for an inquiry into the complaints of forged signatures in September this year and the state has agreed to the request.
He lost his composure when asked why his NGO gave forged documents in the first place. ''How were we to know that they were forged,’’ was his reply as he yelled '' yes we gave them.’’
Kejriwal has responded with five questions . Four of these related to the forged signatures that Khurshid has admitted required a probe.Kejriwal challenged him to resign if the beneficiaries who the NGO claimed to have helped came forward and denied this.
Khurshid said the camps were held and the rest of the matter can be dealt with. He showed bills for buying equipment and said if they were bought then surely they had been given to someone. He did not explain why these were not with the social justice ministry or the CAG.
