Union minister for rural development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said controversial Indian Administrative Services officer that L V Saptarishi did not take permission from the ministry to hold the press conference in New Delhi on Sunday.
Saptarishi, who is director general of Centre for Advancement of Rural Technology, accused election commissioners B B Tandon and N Gopalaswamy for colluding with Bharatiya Janata Party leaders to countermand polling in Bihar's Chapra constituency and of making casteist comments against the Yadav community.
Saptarishi was special observer of Chapra Lok Sabha assembly seat during the Lok Sabha polls last year.
"No, he did not take me into confidence before holding the press conference. I have not been able to seek clarifications from him on this matter. I would definitely be talking to him about it," the minister said at a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.
He slammed BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley for making false allegations that Saptarishi had been promised an extension of his tenure as chief of Centre for Advancement of Rural Technology, which ends in July, 2005.
"BJP has a machine which tells lies and that machine is called Arun Jaitley," he said amidst laughter from the newsmen.
"Jaitley said that between April 30 and May 6, when the controversial letter was written by Saptarishi to Union law minister H R Bhardwaj, he had been promised an extension. The fact is that no such meeting of the executive of CAPART took place between those dates. Yes, a resolution was moved on January 19 wherein an amendment had recommended that the chief executive of CAPART should have a three-year tenure," he said as he waved documents in front of the television cameras. He offered to take the relevant papers to senior BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Kishenchand Advani and show the same to them at their house," he said.
He, however, admitted that Lalu should have consulted United Progressive Alliance partners before demanding the resignation of the two election commissioners.
"Impeachment is a serious and long process. We know how the impeachment motion fell in the case of Justice V Ramaswamy," he said.
Saptarishi, who promised to tell all in an exclusive interview to India Abroad at his office in the India Habitat Centre, chickened out at the last minute.
"I thought you had come to discuss the issue of some NGO with me. No sir, I am not talking to the media. Whatever I had to say I have already said," he said.
