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Wheat import decision a scam : Left, BJP

	September 10, 2007

The Government decision announced last week to import 7.95 lakh tonnes of wheat at a price of about Rs. 16 per kilogram as against Rs. 8.50 a kilogram, minimum support price paid to farm¬ers has been termed as a major scam by the Left parties and as ‘day-light robbery’ by the BJP.



An empowered group of Ministers headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee approved the recommendation of the State Trading Corporation to import the wheat on Monday, Sept. 3.



Reacting to the decision, the CPI(M) politburo said there was absolutely no justification for such an import. It demanded an end to the policy of wheat import and said that the stocks cornered by traders be unearthed and supplies through the public distribution system increased. CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, in a letter to the Prime Minister demanded a probe into the import of wheat at a price much higher than that prevailing in the domestic market.



The CPI also demanded an immediate inquiry into the wheat import decision, calling it a major scam.



The BJP described the decision to import wheat as a “shame¬less day-light robbery.” Party spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said the government had rejected an offer of wheat at a much lower price in June. Calling for the Prime Minister’s interven¬tion to end what he called the “fraud”, he said the Government should order an investigation by the CBI into the episode.



In another development, the CPI(M) has slammed the govern¬ment attitude to what it called Reliance Industries’ exorbitant pricing of Krishna-Godavari basin gas. The Samajwadi Party, the BJP and others had also raised the issue in Parliament recently. The CPI(M) politburo said the price of gas should be based on actual production cost plus reasonable profit.





Unions ask for social security Bills



CPI(M) Members of Parliament met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Sept. 7 and requested him to ensure intro¬duction of separate legislation on social security for the unor¬ganised sector and agricultural workers in the ongoing session of Parliament. Centre of Indian Trade Unions general secretary Mohd. Amin said that the legislation has not been introduced in Parliament even though it figures in the UPA’s national common minimum programme.





Kerala Minister quits



Kerala PWD Minister T.U. Kuruvila quit office on Monday, Sept. 3 over allegations of a land scam involving his kin. He belongs to the Kerala Congress (Joseph) party in the coalition headed by the CPI(M). Kuruvila was reportedly the richest Minister in the Left government who declared crores of rupees of his assets from timber and other big business operations.



Chief Minister V.S. Achchuthanandan said on Sept. 3 that the Left constituent would do well to do some critical introspec¬tion for themselves about the way two of its Ministers had to go in succession within a year. Earlier, party chairman P.J. Joseph had to quit office after allegations that he had molested a woman co-passenger on board a domestic flight.





Kerala reds made millions



A document released by the US Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, says that the Communists in Kerala began amassing large quantities of wealth soon after they came to power in the state five decades ago.



The world’s first elected communist government took office in 1957 and started accumulating wealth “through official coer¬cion, bribes and kickbacks”, the CIA says in a 240-page document titled “National Intelligence Survey India, 1969.”



Today, the CPI(M) in Kerala is believed to own property worth Rs. 5,000 crore. Besides, it runs industrial units, shopping malls, super speciality hospitals, TV channels, soccer tournaments and amusement parks.



In 1958, the undivided CPI in Andhra Pradesh collected Rs. 8 lakh and “more than half of this collection, may have been profits earned thorough a rice purchase arrangement between Andhra Pradesh traders and the Communist government of Kerala,” the document claims.



The Soviet and Communist bloc embassies in New Delhi have been reported to make cash contributions via agents to avoid direct tie-ups. Other assistance has been provided by paying advertising rates for carrying feature articles in the communist press, commissioning Indian editions of Russian books and by providing large quantities of books and pamphlets to CPI book¬stores,” the document says.



CPI(M) leaders said they were yet to see the document and would react to it only after going through it.