President Pranab Mukherjee Saturday said he had nothing whatsoever to do with the government deciding to take back the controversial Ordinance, which was the cabinet's decision and should not be attributed to any reported displeasure shown by him.
"The cabinet was the mother of the ordinance. It alone withdrew the Ordinance," the president said when asked about BJP leader L K Advani's comment that it was the president's displeasure at the Ordinance, which sought to give reprieve to convicted lawmakers, that made the government take it back.
Advani, in his blog, implied that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi only acted after the president's unhappiness was made known to the Bharatiya Janata Party that had gone in a delegation to Mukherjee to denounce the Ordinance sent to him for signing.
Mukherjee was asked by journalists accompanying him on a two-nation tour, on the way from Brussels to Istanbul, to comment on Advani suggesting that the president was actually behind the withdrawal of the Ordinance.
"I don't want to comment on what the opposition said," the president said, emphasising that the president "does not see, speak or hear (anything)".
He clarified that he had received petitions, including from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), against the ordinance.
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