At Long Last

The UPA Government has finally allowed the CBI to arrest Suresh Kalmadi, chief of graft-tainted Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. In fact for quite sometime now, there has been an avalanche of allegations against Kalmadi and his associates entrusted with the task of organising the Games. So it is quite legitimate to wonder if this is a case of too little, too late. Yet, even if belatedly, the significance of this action by the government at the Centre should not be minimised. It must also be noted that within hours of his arrest the Congress suspended Kalmadi from the party.

Following this development has come the welcome news of the CBI framing charges against Kanimozhi, the daughter of DMK chief and Tamil Nadu CM M. Karunanidhi, in the 2G spectrum scam. The CBI’s chargesheet against Kanimozhi—most likely the prelude to her arrest—definitely put the Congress’ relationship with the DMK under strain but the principal ruling party at the Centre could not bear the political cost of inaction in the matter. There was every possibility of the DMK pulling out of the UPA coalition in the wake of this new development, as was speculated by many an observer in the media; but that did not eventually happen with the DMK deciding not to quit the Union Government over the issue (at a time when the results of the Tamil Nadu State Assembly polls are only days away).

No doubt questions are being raised on why it took so much time for the CBI to take concrete steps in both cases wherein the scams had come to light much earlier. And it must also not be forgotten that Kanimozhi’s mother, holding 60 per cent stake in Kalaignar (that allegedly received major 2G kickbacks), has not been named in the chargesheet. One is free to draw one’s own conclusions from this move on the part of the CBI. Still what has ultimately happened is of no mean significance.

Meanwhile it was ironical that on the day (April 26) the whole world was observing the twentyfifth anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy (the worst ever nuclear disaster), the PM should have held a high-powered meeting where Manmohan Singh insisted on going ahead with the Jaitapur nuclear power plant to be built with French assistance, riding roughshod over the mass popular resistance to the project. This has exposed the PMO and UPA Government’s callous indifference to the vital issues of nuclear safety that have acquired more prominence after the Fukushima accident in Japan.

As we go to press the two main accused in the Purulia arms drop case have opened their mouths on the bizarre event of 1995 and come out, after sixteen years, with the explosive revelation that the British intelligence agency and Indian intelligence and, by implication, the governments of the two countries were not only in the know of the operation but actively encouraged it behind-the-scenes, the objective being to destabilise the Left Front-led West Bengal Government. Regardless of the reactions from the Government of India and the Opposition, including the CPM, to such an essertion, the fact remains that neither the Union Government, by its actions at that time, nor the CPM, by its pronounce-ments then, betrayed anything that could remotely suggest New Delhi’s intention to dislodge the State Government as is being sought to be made out. Hence the suspicion remains: the armsd drop could have been part of a much larger conspiracy (which needs to be unearthed through a thorough probe even at this stage). In any case this so-called disclosure would have little impact on the elections to the West Bengal Assembly currently underway in the State (which could ensure the CPM-led Left Front’s ouster from power after 34 long years).

April 29 S.C.