Corruption seems to have become the flavour of this political season. The issue has dominated the entire Winter Session of Parliament with Leaders of the Opposition and ruling fronts blaming each other for either shielding people involved in it or downplaying the issue.
But corruption could become a major issue for the upcoming Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Assembly polls. This became clear after the Opposition’s unity inside Parliament and nervousness seen among some of the ruling partners.
The Opposition on Wednesday expanded the demand of constituting a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) saying that it should also probe Commonwealth Games projects and Adarsh Housing Scam at a time when the government rejected its demand for JPC probe into the 2G spectrum allocation.
NDA convenor and JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav said: “There are three issues involved in our JPC demand. These include 2G spectrum allocation, Adarsh Housing Society scam and Commonwealth Games corruption. Our stress on JPC to probe 2G should not be misconstrued. It’s not that we have left the other two issues. We are demanding JPC for all three.” Terming the 2G spectrum scam as “the biggest scam in the country so far”, Mr Yadav said the CWG scam was similar in nature and alleged that the government was focusing only on small fries in the Games irregularities.
“The kind of action that is taking place in the CWG issue is not effective. So far, the action is happening only with people connected with the Games Organising Committee (OC) and the small fries, while the key persons have been spared. The OC is not the lone entity which was involved in the spendings on the Games. Delhi Development Authority (under the ministry of urban development) and the Delhi government were also into it,” he said.
He said that the Adarsh Housing Scam is related to the Centre and not the state, as the building was constructed on the land belonging to defence ministry. “A number of people from Delhi are involved in it,” he alleged.
Despite some of the UPA allies sending different signals on the JPC issue, parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal insisted that the ruling alliance was united and the government was not under pressure from anyone.
About the Opposition’s threat of carrying forward the protests over the JPC issue to the Budget Session beginning February, he said: “If they do it, they will do it at their own peril. They will do irreversible and immeasurable damage to the parliamentary system”.
“Why should I answer hypothetical questions,” Mr Bansal snapped back when asked whether there would be no option than mid-term polls if the logjam was extended to the next session of Parliament.
The Congress party, meanwhile, sought to embarrass the BJP on the continuance of Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who faces corruption charges.
“Yesterday, Karnataka high court issued a notice to B.S. Yeddyurappa in a corruption case and soon after that BJP president Nitin Gadkari reached Bengaluru to pat him. This is the conduct, character and functioning of the BJP. The problem with the BJP is that those who are the connivers and the condoners of corruption treat every activity as an eyewash,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said and attacked the main Opposition over the non-functioning of parliament for November 10.