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Journalism of Courage
Declining to react to the Supreme Court order on transferring the Best Bakery case out of Gujarat to Maharashtra, Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee on Wednesday said, ‘‘I have no comment. We will abide by the Supreme Court order.’’
At the same time, describing the Lucknow stampede as an ‘‘unfortunate and grave tragedy’’, the PM dismissed the claim and that the incident has dented his image. ‘‘It is a great tragedy, we are mourning it, but elections cannot wait,’’ he said after offering floral tributes to the statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar in front of Vidhana Soudha, the Karnataka government’s secretariat here.
Defending the distribution of saris by his poll manager Lalji Tandon, Vajpayee — who represents Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency — said there was ‘‘nothing wrong’’ in it.
‘‘Every year, saris have been distributed there,’’ Vajpayee said, adding ‘‘this time, some thing happened and it is unfortunate’’. Answering another question, Vajpayee said he was opposed to indulging in personal attacks during electioneering and exhorted politicians to take the campaign to highest level.
The Prime Minister paid a visit to Sri Sathya Sai Baba ashram on the outskirts of the city.
