Excelsior Correspondent/PTI
JAMMU/NEW DELHI, May 4: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today termed as “wrong” the Centre’s announcement for setting up a Judicial Commission to probe the snoopgate issue that allegedly involved BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Omar, whose National Conference (NC) is a part of the UPA, said his father, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah, also felt the same way about the announcement.
“Was talking to my dad last night and he felt the same way – setting up a Commission of Inquiry in the dying hours of UPA 2 is just wrong,” Omar wrote on the micro-blogging site twitter, a day after Union Minister Kapil Sibal declared that the Judicial Commission to investigate `snoopgate’ would be in place before May 16, the day of nationwide counting for Lok Sabha seats..
Omar asserted that the decision should have been implemented when it was taken in December.
“If the decision to appoint a Commission was taken in December, it should have been implemented. To appoint a judge 5 months later is wrong,” he said.
The Chief Minister said it was not necessary that his party would have to agree with the Congress on every issue.
“The UPA is strong enough to allow for different points of view and opinions. We don’t have to agree with each other on every issue,” he said.
Omar also said the National Conference has no intention of abandoning the UPA and the BJP or NDA should not read more than necessary into his disagreement.
“That having been said friends of the NDA/BJP shouldn’t read more in to this than necessary. NC has no intention of abandoning the UPA,” he said.
Another Congress ally-the NCP also voiced similar views
Sharad Pawar, who heads the second-largest member of the Congress-led coalition Government, called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and expressed his opposition to appointment of a judge at this juncture to probe the issue.
Modi came in the line of fire after it was alleged that illegal surveillance was carried out on a young woman in Gujarat in 2009 at his behest as Gujarat Chief Minister, as also Amit Shah, who was then the state’s Home Minister.
Government announced on Friday that a judge would be appointed by May 16 to probe the issue, drawing the ire of the BJP.
Notwithstanding the opposition by NCP and NC, Congress made it clear that the judge will be appointed, asserting that there will be “no compromise” as the issue involved women of the country.
BJP today welcomed the stand taken by the two UPA allies, saying even coalition partners are refusing to be part of Congress’s “politics of vendetta”.
“It shows that UPA allies have found sense. They are seeing the truth. This is the politics of vendetta which is the specialty of Congress. Political parties do not want to get involved in it,” BJP national spokesperson M J Akbar told reporters here.
Union Minister and senior NCP leader Praful Patel said: “When the results of the Lok Sabha elections are due in two weeks’ time, where is the need for such an enquiry.”
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