New Delhi: Law Minister Salman Khurshid, a
key negotiator with Team Anna, on Sunday said there may have been
"errors of judgement" in handling Hazare`s fast but there were
no mistakes.
"Errors of judgement have been made, errors of judgement
are made whenever you are involved in a difficult situation.
Errors of judgement are not mistakes", Khurshid told a news channel.
"We made no mistakes. What we did may not have turned
out to be the way it should. May be our calculation and
anticipation turned out to be not what we thought it to be.
But I am not prepared to admit we made mistakes," he said.
Defending the way the government handled the Anna Hazare
agitation, he said, "It is courage of conviction. It is faith
in oneself. We are not pushovers. We might have made errors
of judgment. We may have lost ground somewhere but we are
determined to get that ground back."
Asked whether he is saying that the government has made
no mistakes, a combative Khurshid said, "The outcome of what
you did depends on how you define a mistake. A mistake is to
do something that you should not be doing."
He further said, "It is very sensitive, complex
situation that has just unfolded into a good resolution."
To repeated queries whether government committed mistakes
in tackling the situation, he said, "Ask me 100 times, my
answer will be the same."
He said, "It is faith and confidence and I believe we do
not want the government to be kicked around...It is the best
possible resolution by Parliament."
Khurshid said Hazare`s fast will add to "our
understanding and knowledge of mass movement in the 21st
century".
When told that senior Ministers P Chidamabram and Kapil
Sibal had become hate figures at Ramlila Maidan and Arvind
Kejriwal even refused to speak to them, Khurshid defended his
cabinet colleagues.
"They were involved at a very difficult stage. They
have to take difficult calls. There was intransigence on both
sides particularly on the other side."
However, Khurshid did not agree they were withdrawn from
handling the agitation. "They were never withdrawn. Nobody was
withdrawn. They did what was required to do.
"You may not be popular with the crowd at a particular
moment. I am not prepared to accept that they were
discredited."
To charges of negligence on part of the government to
handle the crisis which kept the country traumatised for 13
days, Khurshid said, "It was a unique experience. I do believe
it was important not just for us to act alone but to get every
big political party and major political parties on board and I
think this is what we achieved in the end. It is the result
that matters."
When told that majority of people believed that
government mishandled the situation he said, "This was not a
blame game or acceptance of post mortem. We are very carefully
step by step trying to understand a complicated situation."
On Anna Hazare, he said, "We have reached out to a
remarkable man, remarkable movement and we want the movement
to go forward and give India a much better scheme of things.
We are determined it will happen."
Not agreeing that many are questioning Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh`s leadership and he is losing the
respectability he had in 2009, Law Minister said, "Every step
was led by him and every decision was led by him."
"For four days Prime Minister sat there almost like he
was in a control room monitoring every step we took and every
word we spoke and I am sorry if someone thinks that PM was not
in control then they do not understand what happened," he
said, asserting there has been no damage to the PM`s image.
"The space has been taken by contending people we will
need to get that space back. It happens in a democracy when
ocean opens it splits to give path that happened for Moses. We
are not Moses we are not against Gandhi either. Gandhi is on
our side."
He said, "Bottom line is that whenever these kind of
things happen there are give and takes. There are improvement
and falling in popularity stakes. We know what we doing we
know what where are we going."
Asked why no preventive step was taken as the issue was
boiling since April, Khurshid said, "Of course prevention is
better than cure but you cannot always prevent, sometimes you
have to cure."
To a question whether Manish Tewari did not commit gaffe
he said, "Manish has drawn a line. I am not blaming him. It
was a position that a young man took, upset by the fact that
the PM had been sent a very distressing missive. He took that
position but he did realise that this was too tough a
position."
On Delhi Police`s role, Khurshid said they handled the
situation in a "remarkable" way.
However, being critical of the media`s role he said,
"World does not end with media box. World does not end with
Anna Hazare. World is much larger... world certainly does not
start and end with Anna Hazare. Anna Hazare is an important
icon to whom our PM not only has saluted but paid tribute. We
are pleased and happy that he is in hospital."
He further said, "We are not folding up and going away.
We will leave it to the people to decide what role media
play."
On Anna being sent to jail ahead of his fast, he said,
he was sent by order of the Magistrate and the government
cannot question a judge.
Pointing out the positive aspects, Khurshid said
"Everything that happened is not negative, some positive
things too have happened. We have gained something after those
positive things. They will add to our understanding of a mass
movement in the 21st century."
Asked whether he would resign owning up responsibility
for the protracted stir that caused trauma to the country,
khurshid said, "I am not offering resignation. I am taking
responsibility. This is a problem and government does not
decide on a TV channel."
"You should not decide for the government how it should
function. You can advise, comment but please do not tell us
how government should function," he said.
PTI
