I don't support smear campaign: Sonia Gandhi

suchithkc



New Delhi, April 20 : Congress president Sonia Gandhi Wednesday reiterated her support to Gandhian Anna Hazare's demand for a strong Lokpal Bill and said she doesn't 'support nor encourage the politics of smear campaign' against civil rights activists.
'Let me reiterate what I wrote to you earlier that I believe there is an urgent necessity to combat graft and corruption. You should have no doubt of my commitment in the fight for probity in public life,' Gandhi wrote to Anna Hazare in her capacity as the chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC), the advisory body to the government.
'I strongly support the institution of a Lokpal that is consistent with the practices and conventions of parliamentary democracy,' said the United Progressive Alliance chairperson.
'As for statements appearing in the media, let me assure you that I don't support nor encourage the politics of smear campaign,' she said in her letter written April 19, which was distributed to the media Wednesday.
'Lokpal bill was very much a part of the agenda of the NAC,' she added.
Anna Hazare had written to Sonia Gandhi Monday that corrupt forces were trying to derail the process of drafting a new anti-graft law.
The letter came in the wake of controversies surrounding a CD containing a purported telephonic conversation between co-chair of the joint committee for drafting the Lokpal Bill Shanti Bhushan, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and former Samajwadi party leader Amar Singh, allegedly about attempting to influence a judge.
The social reformer also referred to the comments made by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, asking if Gandhi personally approved of his statements.