Activists rally behind Bhushans, say no one will quit

Social activists today dug in their heels saying none of the five civil society members on the Lokpal Bill drafting panel would resign in the wake of the swirling controversies surrounding the father-son duo Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan.

Social activists on Thursday dug in their heels saying none of the five civil society members on the Lokpal Bill drafting panel would resign in the wake of the swirling controversies surrounding the father-son duo Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan.

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Arvind Kejriwal, a member of the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee, said at a press conference that "No one is going to resign."

He was referring to allegations against the joint committee co-chair Shanti Bhushan and his lawyer son, Prashant Bhushan, of wrong-doing in land deals, which they have vigorously denied.

"We are not going to run away from the field," Kejriwal said.

The Bhushans have also figured in a controversial audio CD which has purported conversations between Shanti Bhushan, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh and expelled SP member Amar Singh trying to fix a dubious legal deal.

On the alleged report of a state forensic lab certifying the CD as authentic, Kejriwal said that there were "vested interests" carrying out a "malicious campaign" against them.

He also pointed out that Truth Labs in Hyderabad and an independent US audio forensic expert George Papcun had found the CD to be spliced together from earlier conversations.

Kejriwal said that events were at a historic turning point, where the country could get a very stringent anti-graft law as a result of deliberations of the panel.