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Journalism of Courage
Knives are out in the Maharashtra ruling coalition again on the leakage of taped telephonic conversation between film star Sanjay Dutt and underworld don Chhota Shakeel causing acute embarrassment to the Congress.
The Nationalist Congress Party came down heavily on the Congress today for blaming Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal for the leak.
Praful Patel, NCP general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP, said the release of tapes was due to bitter rivalry going on within the Congress and that the NCP had nothing to do with it. Patel said the tapes were with the Maharashtra Police for more than a year. They were kept a closely guarded secret by the state. But it was Kapil Sibal, a Congress MP who first talked about the existence of such tapes while defending his client Bharat Shah.
It was Sibal, he said, who was the lawyer of Sanjay Dutt as well and knew about the existence of these tapes. Patel said once Kapil mentioned about these tapes, the TADA court ordered the same to be produced. Once the transcripts were made, the same went to the media as well.
Therefore, he said, it would be wrong on the part of Congress leaders to blame the NCP or Bhujbal and added the Congress must refrain from dragging his party’s name. ‘‘It is their own creation and result of their internal politics,’’ he said.
This was the second occasion in the recent past that the two coalition partners have come out against each other. The NCP’s decision to support P.C. Alexander for the lone Rajya Sabha seat too had been a cause of bitterness.
