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Prez, PM, Shah attend Ananth Kumar's daughter's reception

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Press Trust of India New Delhi
President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah were among a galaxy of leaders who attended the wedding reception of Aishwarya, daughter of Union Minister H N Ananth Kumar, here tonight.

Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nitin Gadkari and a number of Cabinet colleagues of Ananth Kumar as also Governors of several states also graced the reception.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad and industrialist Gautam Adani besides several dignitaries and a large number of MPs were also present at the event.
(Reopens DEL11)

Asked whether the Kejriwal government or the IAS

association could have been more vocal in defending him, Kumar said it was for them to judge and "look into their own hearts" and find out.
 

"At the end law will take its own course and those who have misused law will have to answer for that," he said.

Rejecting CBI's claim that he was trying to "influence" the case, Kumar said since a charge sheet has already been filed, "in no way" could he have affected the probe.

He said that he wanted people in the IAS fraternity to treat his case an an "aberration" and not as a rule.

"But if civil servants get discouraged then one very important forbearer of public service and the rule of law would have gone," he said, refusing to call himself a "victim" of the acrimony between AAP and BJP.

About the case, he said, "The situation was and is very bitter but I would not like to call myself a victim. I will fight it out."

On former lt governor Najeeb Jung's statement that the tussle was essentially due to Kejriwal's interpretation of the constitutional provisions, Kumar said the rules are itself very clear and have no room for confusion.

"There are two people and both of them have different interpretations of the Constitution. One is saying my interpretation is correct. I would leave my statement at that.

"As long as we follow the rule of law, democracy does not have space for such things which has happened. We need to respect institutions and be very cautious about it and at every instance we need to raise our voice and protest if things go otherwise," he said.

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First Published: Mar 15 2016 | 9:42 PM IST

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