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Political Notes |
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Controversy over ‘clean’ chit to George Fernandes
A big political controversy has arisen over the Government’s response to a public interest litigation case in the Supreme Court about alleged Government inaction on irregularities in purchase of arms during the Kargil war. The statement filed by a Defence Ministry functionary in the Supreme Court stated that no rule was violated or substituted in the defence purchases made during and after the 1999 Kargil War with Pakistan. The PIL had alleged that the Manmohan Singh Government had not taken action on the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General that had highlighted irregularities in purchase of arms and ammunition and other material during and after the Kargil war. The Government statement said the procedure was only modified to reduce the timeframe for the import of critical items.
While the Government stand in the Supreme Court has been welcomed by the BJP and other constituents of the NDA, some circles within the Congress and also the Left parties have criticised what they called the mishandling of a sensitive matter. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee issued a statement questioning the claim of the JDU leader George Fernandes that he had been given a clean chit in the Kargil purchases case. Mukherjee said five cases referred to in the affidavit have been sent to the CBI and are being actively investigated. As a consequence, there is no question of giving a clean chit to any person, much less to Fernandes.
It may be recalled that the Congress and the Left parties had made a big issue of the irregularities in defence purchases during the time when George Fernandes was Defence Minister in the Vajpayee Government. Fernandes had to quit the Government as a consequence. When he was taken back into the Government before the probe into the case was over, the Congress boycotted him in Parliament. Sonia Gandhi had personally attacked George Fernandes and former Prime Minister Vajpayee on the issue.
Andhra peace talks hit a road block
Andhra Pradesh Naxalites have made it clear that they are no longer interested in having talks with the Y.S.R. Reddy Government in the state. Three emissaries of the Naxalites pulled out of the talks last week snapping the last link between the two sides. The three emissaries said that they are pulling out as the State Government was adopting what they called “fascist” methods to suppress the Maoist movement and continuing with fake encounters. They said the Government talk of continuing the negotiations is a farce.
Observers say that the Naxalites used the time provided by the peace talks to rest and regroup their forces. The period of talks has seen rise of Left-wing extremism in 76 districts in nine states. There may be stepped up Naxalite violence in several states, especially Andhra Pradesh, after the breakdown of the talks in Hyderabad. In stepped up violence last week, Maoists killed a mandal (block) president of the ruling Congress and burnt seven buses of the Road Transport Corporation at different places. The Naxalites also killed a BJP leader in Mehboob Nagar.
Tamil Nadu : Jayalalithaa may advance Assembly polls
The opposition parties in Tamil Nadu are gearing up for an early electoral battle with the ruling All India Anna-DMK. Sources in the state say that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa may advance the assembly elections by about six months. According to the Opposition Jayalalithaa has already made her intentions clear with a populist budget. She may dissolve the assembly by the end of this month so that the elections could be announced six months from now. Normally, elections are to be held in Tamil Nadu in April-May next year. The All India Anna-DMK, however, said that the Chief Minister had no plans to dissolve the Assembly and hold early elections.
Meanwhile, Jayalalithaa has announced that Tamil Nadu will soon approach the Supreme Court to get its share of the Krishna River waters from Andhra Pradesh to overcome the acute drinking water shortage in Chennai. She told the State Assembly last week that Andhra Pradesh has been supplying much less water to Tamil Nadu than the 15000 million cubic feet of Krishna waters as per an agreement reached over two decades back.
Lok Sabha Speaker cancels visit to Australia over frisking
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has cancelled his visit to Sydney to attend a meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Executive over Australia’s refusal to waive mandatory frisking in his case. Learning from George Fernandes experience in the United States, Chatterjee had asked the Ministry of External Affairs to obtain advance exemption from security checks in countries he was to visit as Presiding Officer of the Lok Sabha. Consequently, the United States, Malaysia, Britain and the Phillipines had extended the courtesy to him. But Australia did not oblige. Sources in the Parliament Secretariat say that as a rule New Delhi extends the protocol the Speaker sought for himself to Presiding Officers visiting India. Somnath Chatterjee said that he does not want to visit a country which does not respect the Presiding Officer of the Parliament of the largest democracy in the world. He does not want to go, where he is not trusted.
CBI raids on former Haryana Chief Minister Chautala
The CBI has carried out raids on the houses and properties of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, his Rajya Sabha Member son Ajay Chautala and several of his associates in the teachers’ recruitment scam. CBI officials say that disproportionate assets worth crores of rupees have been found. There are allegations that the list of persons selected for appointment as Junior Basic Trained teachers was tampered with to accommodate some persons. Chautala has described the raids as part of political vendetta on the part of the Congress.
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