By Firoz.T.Totanawala
The Bangalore Metro Reporter
15th December 2010 Issue
DOUBLE STANDARD POLITICS
ASHOK
CHAVAN V/S YEDURAPPA
The Maharashtra
Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had to resign following the Adarsh Housing Society
scam where flats meant for Kargil widows were cornered by defense personnel and
powerful politicians. Much before Ashok Chavan became the CM, his relatives had
purchased flats in this housing complex. When the scam broke out, the Congress
high command ensured that Ashok Chavan tendered his resignation but waited for
disclosure till Obama departed. The BJP stalled the parliament demanding the
resignation but Ashok Chavan had already resigned before. The same BJP who
stalled the Parliament had to apply same yardstick to their Chief Minister B.S
Yeddyurappa who is involved in similar, if not more serious scam. But, the
reality is different in South.
The opening day of
the parliament saw the congress High command ordering capital punishment to two
of its senior leaders. It had asked the Maharashtra
CM Ashok Chavan to resign and stripped CPP general Secretary Suresh Kalmadi
from the post. Unaware of these developments the BJP and its allies stalled the
house proceedings demanding resignation of Ashok Chavan and ordering CBI
enquiry into the Adarsha Housing Society scam. The BJP also demanded the
resignation of Suresh Kalmadi the Chairman of Organising Committee of the
recently concluded common wealth games.
But what they did not
bargain for was the swift action by Sonia Gandhi even before the houses met. In
the wake of the Adarsh Society scam, Ashok Chavan had tendered his resignation
to Sonia Gandhi on 5th November itself. But she kept it pending till
the visiting US President Barak Obama left the Country. She directed Ashok
Chavan to submit the papers to the Governor. At the same time, she had asked
Suresh Kalmadi to resign from the post of Secretary of the Congress
parliamentary party. As far as Adarsh Society is concerned, the CBI was told to
conduct the probe and the CBI is already probing the CWG scams. In one shot,
Sonia Gandhi had taken the winds away from the BJP. Then BJP demanded the
sacking of Telecom Minister A Raja for his role in the 2G spectrum scam. But,
because Raja belongs to DMK, Sonia Gandhi had to take the consent of Karunanidhi
to sack him and it obviously took a couple of days for a decision in this
regard.
But, now the Congress
has turned the tables against BJP daring it to emulate its action in the case
of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S.Yeddyurappa, who is neck deep involved in
similar if not more serious scams. For reasons best known, the BJP High Command
took no action, not even rebuke against Yedurappa.
In fact, the BJP in
Karnataka has heralded despicable political culture. It came to power by
purchasing six independents. It acquired majority by reducing the strength of
opposition parties by engineering resignations of their MLAs and making them
Ministers and getting them elected in the bye elections. In the recent rebellion
of twenty MLAs, the Yedurappa Government saved the day by disqualifying 16 MLAs
through the speaker just hours before the vote of confidence. Thus it survived
by reducing the strength of the house itself. The political culture sunk to its
new low in the history of Indian democracy.
More than this despicable
political culture, the Yedurappa Government is neck deep in hi-fi corruption.
And leading the way is none other than the Chief Minister himself. He is
involved in a scam which is worse than Ashok Chavan’s. Yedurappa’s MP Son B.Y
Raghvendra, his son-in-law have purchased BDA acquired lands in Arkavathi
Layout. S.N Krishnaiah Setty has sold (?) the lands. The Supreme Court has
upheld the acquisition of lands for Arkavathi layout. After the lands were
registered in the names of Raghavendra and other family members, Yedurappa got
the lands denotified despite opposition from the BDA. What more, as a safe bet,
the original owner was made to apply for denotification instead of Raghavendra
and others. This was a clear plan to keep the entire scam under wraps. The
lands are of course worth crores!
There are other
denotifications by Yedurappa which were all for monetary gains. In one
particular case, Yedurappa denotified BDA lands in Nagarabhavi where the BDA
had allotted sites and houses were build years ago including that of Law and
Urban Development Minister Suresh Kumar. How can one imagine the denotification
of fully build up lands by Yedurappa? It is simply inhuman and cruel. And when
the matter was taken up in the High Court, Yedurappa simply cancelled the
denotification.
As far as Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan is concerned, his relatives
had procured the flat much before he became the CM. Here too, the land on which
the Apartments were built was meant for widows of Kargil heroes. But the flats
were grabbed by many top defense personnel and powerful politicians. Successive
CMs from Sushil Kumar Shindhe, Vilas Rao Deshmukh etc. have contributed their
mite in getting clearance to the Housing project. After the scam broke out, the
Government has withdrawn occupancy certificates and declared the Housing
Complex as illegal as it violated Zonal Regulations and sanctioned plan.
Finally, with his relatives’ names in the beneficiaries list, Ashok Chavan met
Sonia Gandhi and submitted his resignation as CM. It was accepted but declared
officially only after Obama left India
In case of BSY, one
can find similarities with Ashok Chavan’s case. Raghavendra purchased some
lands in Arkavathi Layout which was acquired by BDA years back. The Supreme
Court had held the land acquisition valid. There is also a SC judgement to the
effect that once the lands are acquired, they can not be denotified. But Yedurappa
overruled all the objections by BDA and Urban Development and ordered the
denotification of the land. The reason being simple, the lands were purchased
by his Son and son-in-law!
The Congress is right
when it dared the BJP to emulate the Ashok Chavan incident in case of BSY also.
But the BJP is in no mood, even to contemplate issuing a warning to Yedurappa.
And the BJP always take up high moral ground over probity in public life. They
are adopting double standard now. One cannot expect any meaningful and positive
action from the BJP High Command in the case of Yedurappa. And what about Yedurappa?
He does not even dream of quitting the CM post and recently made a claim of
being in the CM chair for another 20 years? God save Karnataka!
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