Congress boycotts Arnab Goswami, suspends partyman Khazan Singh for attending Times Now programme

Congress party suspended partyman Khazan Singh for six months after he attended Arnab Goswami's debate on Times Now channel.

Written by: India.com News Desk

Published: September 5, 2016, 2:08 PM IST

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New Delhi, Sep 5: Congress party suspended partyman Khazan Singh for six months after he attended Arnab Goswami’s programme on Times Now channel. Khazan Singh was associated with Congress in Haryana for last 40 years. Congress’ Haryana unit has been boycotting Arnab Goswami and Times Now since last  six months. Khazan Singh participated in a Times Now programme on the Dhingra Commission report on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s land dealings.

“We have suspended Haryana Congress general secretary Khazan Singh for six years for talking to the TV channel which the party has on principle been boycotting for months. No one in the party can on their own decide to speak to any TV channel. The person in question did not seek any permission and acted on his own against party line,” Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar was quoted as saying. Tanwar terms Khazan Singh’s engagement with the Times Now reporters as “as an act of indiscipline”. (ALSO READ: Zakir Naik issues defamation notice to Times Now seeking Rs 500 crores as compensation: Will Arnab Goswami apologise?)

Khazan Singh, who was stunned by the move, said that he was unaware of the boycott decision. “I will reply to the notice when I get it,” Singh told the Tribune. Congress suspended Khazan Singh after party’s media department sent report about his participation in a Times Now programme. Times Now had conducted debate on the Dhingra Commission report which was submitted by Justice S.N. Dhingra.

Dhingra report pointed to irregularities in grant of licences and land allotment in prime areas to individuals and companies, including Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and his firms. The 182-page report, it is reliably learnt, has indicted the previous Congress government (2005-2014) in Haryana led by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, for irregularities in grant of licences. It has pointed to alleged connivance of the Hooda government in favouring Vadra and others.

The Congress alleged that “portions of the report were leaked even before its submission” which they said was done to “defame and malign”.  The Congress also alleged that Justice Dhingra had sought favours from the Haryana government and this had compromised his neutrality.