Introduction: In which Congress MPs forgot that they had also recommended petrol pump allotments to Naik
Kapil Sibal does a lawyer’s job in seeking to break through my position on the so-called petrol pump scam (Do you know something Naik doesn’t, Mr Punj?, The Indian Express, August 14). Congressmen did write to the BJP Minister recommending allotments but, says Mr Sibal, ‘‘no pressure was put on the Minister’’. He is not an innocent newcomer to politics not to know that a letter from worthies like Manmohan Singh is not to be treated with contempt.
The fact is, Congress MPs did write to the Minister recommending cases. My reason for mentioning this was not to blame them. I was only bringing to light the facts: MPs do not live in ivory towers. If even a man of known integrity like Dr Singh is under pressure to recommend allotments (whether of a widow or somebody else hardly matters, because cases can always be made out) so you can imagine the plight of other members. How can we deal with this situation where droves of people from their constituencies importune MPs every day for quotas, allotments, job recommendations, berths and even railway reservations?
One way this pressure can be reduced is by removing the honey pot from under the chairs of ministers. This is exactly what the disinvestment process is doing. If the BJP wanted to get fattened at public expense it would have refused to give up public sector units—for these are where the honey pots lie. Sibal should compare the speed and transparency in disinvestments under the BJP regime with that under the Narasimha Rao regime.
If the BJP wanted to benefit from allotments, surely all the PM had to do was to stonewall any attempt to cancel these allotments. If the minister or party had received pecuniary benefits, surely, the Prime Minister would not have dared to cancel the allotments. Cowardice is in refusing to recognise that you may have committed a mistake. The very fact of allotment is a recognition that something may have gone wrong. Any enquiry, if need be, can follow later after ascertaining whether anyone in the party received any pecuniary benefit.
Mr Sibal says that some judges who presided over the allotment committees have said that they were under pressure or that they were removed when they did not succumb to it. No one has said that the Minister spoke to them but if someone from the Ministry spoke, did they check up with the Minister’s office? Anyone can pretend that he is from Petroleum Ministry if he only knows a few names and can claim to speak on behalf of some VIP.
Further exposures by The Indian Express have revealed the large number of Congress names who received the benefit. At least Mr Sibal would now be frank enough to acknowledge that Congressmen put their hand in the honey pot too. We are yet to come across any retired judge who said that he was approached by a responsible BJP leader at such and such level.
As for enquiries, don’t we know what happened to the Bofors enquiry by the Joint Parliamentary Committee? Mr Sibal says that nothing has been found out about Rajiv Gandhi’s involvement. Yes, he is right. Some people are very clever and draw many circles around to protect the real culprit, like Drona did to protect Jayadratha from Arjuna’s anger. Too many people close to the Nehru-Gandhi family are listed as Bofors beneficiaries, which the CBI is now pursing.
Besides, Mr Sibal, if you recall, the Congress did not agree to any enquiry by the CBI till Parliamentary pressure forced them to. In the petrol pumps case, no one has come out with a credible accusation that Mr Naik or the BJP as a party received any benefit.
Tongue in cheek, Mr Sibal says that the allotments under the Congress regime were from the discretionary quota of the minister. This is exactly what Supreme Court judge Kuldip Singh investigated and we all know what happened. Even discretionary quotas, Mr Sibal, have rules for allotment. At least give the BJP credit for abolishing these quotas.
Mr Sibal assumes that BJP shared the booty. Where is the booty, Mr Sibal? Give at least ten instances out of the nearly 2,000 allotments made. Your Congressmen also got the allotments. Did they pay the BJP? In that case, please ask them to come out in the open or throw them out of your party for paying the BJP.
Do you remember a former Congress prime minister? Do you know the corruption cases he is being prosecuted for? When a minister in the Urban Development ministry was found to have received money for each allotment of government quarter out of turn, did you remove her?
In the allotment of petrol pumps, I believe that what needs to be probed is how so many politically connected people from different parties came to benefit in an environment where there were some 50-odd allotment committees geographically dispersed over a wide area. Honest discussions, rather than tongue in cheek accusations, are needed. Only then can a decision be taken on whether it needs a further probe and if so, what kind of a probe.
Those who dragged their feet over several scandals in the past are now posing as angels of virtue. Didn’t Indira Gandhi refuse to show even the enquiry report on the L N Mishra case of allotment of permits for liquor import? When did Rajiv Gandhi agree to any enquiry into Bofors? How long did it take the hawala case to cast a shadow on the Narasimha Rao government? Was it not a fact that a whole set of bank accounts was forged under a Congress regime against V P Singh’s son? Did the Congress order an enquiry into it?
Was it not a fact that the Congress prime minister was accused by a lawyer of eminence of taking crores as bribes giving details of how the money was delivered and who did it? Was an enquiry ordered?
The BJP did not take long to force its own president to resign when his name was dragged into a scandal. The same commitment for right conduct has forced prime minister Vajpayee to cancel the allotments in one stroke so that the alleged beneficiaries will not run away with their benefits, if wrongly obtained. It is not the end of the story, but it gives the right climate to consider the core of the wrong doing, if any.
(The writer, a BJP MP and Convenor
of BJP’s Intellectual Cell, can be contacted at bpunj@email.com)