Corruption

As for the Bills which are designed to combat corruption, after doing nothing for five years, the Government is now seeking the ordinance route. Moreover, the government could have easily extended the session of parliament by a few days to get them discussed and adopted.

The Central Committee noted that the Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and the Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, were finally forced to resign after the Prime Minister and the Congress party resisted this demand while the parliament session was on. This has exposed the hypocrisy of the Congress which has blamed the opposition for the disruption of the parliamentary proceedings since the wrong-doing of the ministers became known.

The arrest of the nephew of the Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, for accepting a bribe of Rs. 90 lakh from a Member of the Railway Board is a shocking and serious matter. The CBI has arrested the Minister’s nephew, Vijay Singla and the member of the Railway Board, Mahesh Kumar.

Is it true that Shri Raja had met him personally in the first week of January, 2008 as stated in his letter to brief the Hon'ble PM about the procedure he was going to follow? In his submission, Shri Raja states, “Thereafter I met the Hon’ble PM in the first week of January 2008 and this issue was again discussed and he agreed with the proposed course of action of the DoT.”

It is surprising that the CBI has not investigated this aspect of the 2G spectrum case. The Prime Minister’s related efforts at distancing himself from the affair have also been exposed. The Prime Minister cannot absolve himself of his responsibility in the matter. The Polit Bureau demands that the role of the PMO is specifically enquired into by the CBI. The Joint Parliamentary Committee should summon both the Prime Minister and A. Raja to testify.

The withdrawal of the TMC from the government, even the partners of the UPA government differing with the anti-people measures adopted – all go to show that the Manmohan Singh government has no mandate to push through such reforms. The September 20 all India protest and hartal showed the discontent and fighting mood of the people. The Central Committee resolved to intensify the movements and struggles in defence of people’s livelihood and to mobilize the people against high level corruption.

The CPI(M) is of the opinion that these business dealings and the affairs of these companies should be investigated by the relevant authorities. Only such a probe can bring out the truth.

Coming after the 2G, CWG, KG gas and Air India scams, the coal scam is yet another misdeed of this scam-ridden UPA government. All these scams are outcomes of the big business-corrupt politician-bureaucrat nexus which has flourished under the neoliberal policy regime.