I take no responsibility for what Pratibha does: Bardhan

RIGHT TO CLAIM: Bardhan says Pratibha is a simple woman who has not been charged of any crime.

      

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Karan Thapar: Mr Bardhan this is not just a wrong thing. To many people Pratibha Patil’s comments sound as if she is advocating something similar to Hitler’s 1933 ‘Law for the Prevention of Heriditary Diseased Offspring’. And that, as you know, was central to his plan for a master race. Pratibha Patil’s views sound uncannily similar. Should she not at least recant?

A B Bardhan: I admire the way you are trying to connect her with Hitler. If there’s anything to be connected with Hitler it is that lie factory of the BJP.

Karan Thapar: So you’re prepared to forget and forgive even though she may stand by it?

A B Bardhan: I don’t know whether she will stand by it.

Karan Thapar: But if you don’t know whether she’ll stand by it shouldn’t she publicly say she has recanted?

A B Bardhan: Anyway, it’s not the President who will lay down the policy.

Karan Thapar: May be, but this could be a President who has these views. She will be the symbol of India.

A B Bardhan: Many people in this country from the BJP, Congress and many other parties believe in godmen, godwomen, and God knows what else.

Karan Thapar: The point is you are not choosing many people such as that to be the President. You have chosen Pratibha Patil. Are you embarrassed by her views on forced sterilisation?

A B Bardhan: I don’t agree with them. That’s all.

Karan Thapar: So shouldn’t she clear the air and apologise or, at least, recant?

A B Bardhan: For everything that has been said in the past?

Karan Thapar: Why not?

A B Bardhan: There was a policy of forcible sterilisation followed even in the Emergency. Should she apologise for that?

Karan Thapar: May be but should she not clear the air before she becomes the President?

A B Bardhan: Why? Because she’s not going to follow those policies and she’s not called upon to lay down the policy.

Karan Thapar: Let me call upon your attention to something that she declared on June 17. She has made it clear that she believes in divine spirits. On June 17 she said that she had had a conversation with a man who died in 1969 because the man had manifested himself in the body of a woman.

You are laughing because it’s hilarious. But do you acknowledge that such a woman should be President?

A B Bardhan: Most of your leaders be the Congress or the BJP believe in godmen, spirits and astrologists.