Author: Lodha Casa Rio
Publication:Times of India
Date: November 29, 2010
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Lobbying-charge-by-Arun-Shourie-stirs-row/articleshow/7006952.cms
Former telecom minister Arun Shourie on Sunday
stirred a controversy by claiming in a TV interview that he was replaced by
senior party leader Venkaiah Naidu in Parliament as the BJP's lead speaker
in a debate on the 2009 Budget so that the party could take a more accommodating
line on proposals that could favour industrialist Mukesh Ambani.
Referring to tapes of a purported conversation
between lobbyist Niira Radia and JD(U) MP and former bureaucrat N K Singh,
Shourie said he was relegated in the speaking order at the instance of Singh.
Both N K Singh and the BJP claimed the charge was "baseless and ridiculous".
In the purported conversation, Singh allegedly
expressed the fear that Shourie, having been assured a Rajya Sabha seat from
UP with the SP's support, would take a line favouring Anil Ambani and the
the BJP would be constrained to toe the line taken by its first speaker.
Asked in the interview, telecast on CNN-IBN,
whether his substitution by Naidu was indeed meant to ensure that the party
showed understanding for Mukesh Ambani's pitch for tax breaks and incentives,
Shourie said, "Yes, it was certainly their objective, I mean it's clear
from the tapes that was the objective. They may have apprehended this because
I had spoken about that particular proposal in an adverse way in a party meeting...
I may or may not have spoken about this on the floor of the House," Shourie
said.
When contacted by TOI, N K Singh said, "As
revenue secretary, I had opposed the demand to extend tax breaks and other
incentives available to those engaged in oil exploration to those doing gas
exploration. I had sent letters to that effect to the then petroleum secretary,
as well as to the principal secretary to the then prime minister."
He further said that the entire allegation
flows from a "social conversation" which has no bearing on a policy
issue. "In any case, it is the BJP's prerogative to decide whom to field
in a parliamentary debate and in what order," Singh said.
BJP, on its part, dismissed the charge as
"outrageous". Sources in the party said that contrary to what Shourie
has claimed, the line-up of speakers on the finance bill was settled 10 days
in advance. There was no last-minute change as Shourie claimed. "The
fact of the matter is that the party has deliberately decided to steer clear
of the dispute on gas pricing because of the bitter corporate warfare raging
around it. Shourie kept speaking about it in party meetings but he never had
the sanction to speak in Parliament on the same because we didn't want to
be seen as taking sides," senior party sources said.
Sources also said that being a former BJP
president, it was logical that Naidu got precedence over Shourie.
Shourie, however, had a different version. Asked in the interview whether
this actually happened, he said, "Yes, there is no doubt in that. I was
asked to open the debate on the Budget, I worked for one week to speak on
the matter and at the last minute, after I reached the House, I was told that
the previous night, Venkaiah Naidu had decided to speak suddenly. Therefore,
as he had been party president, he would speak first. My turn would come after
all the 13-14 speakers had spoken and then I would be the second speaker for
the party."
