<b>Jaimini Bhagwati:</b> Explosive dying declaration?

Govt and judiciary must collaborate and investigate into Kalikho Pul's accusations

On August 9, 2016, Kalikho Pul, about two weeks after demitting office as the chief minister (CM) of Arunachal Pradesh (AP), committed suicide by hanging himself within the CM’s official residence in Itanagar, the state capital. He was just 47 years old. The late Mr Pul left a 60-page note titled “My Views”, written in Hindi and signed by him on every page. This note makes allegations about corruption among those who were/are holding high office in AP, central government and the Supreme Court. Mr Pul’s note in a manner of speaking was a dying declaration. 

Allegations about financial wrongdoing are usually discussed in detail in Indian newspapers and on television. Surprisingly, little has appeared in the media about this 60-page note and its correlation, if any, with politics in the state. Hence the need to first state basic information about AP and the tenures and party affiliations of its past CMs.  

AP with a population 1.3 million became a full-fledged state in 1987.  AP’s legislative assembly has 60 members of legislative Assembly (MLAs) and is represented in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha by one and two members respectively. AP is a strategically located state with 1,030 kilometres (km) of border with China, 440 km with Myanmar and 160 km with Bhutan. The party in power in AP has often changed at short intervals due to the shifting loyalties of MLAs. For instance, Gegong Apang was the CM from August 2003 to April 2007 heading governments of the United Democratic Front, the BJP and the Congress. Mr Apang moved sequentially from one party to another and his changing loyalties appear to have been determined by which party was in power in Delhi.  

By contrast, over the nearly nine years from April 2007 till January 2016 although there were three CMs they were all from the Congress party. The last of these three CMs was Nabam Tuki who was in power from November 2011 till January 2016. Over the remaining 11 months of 2016 the several large-scale defections of MLAs from one side to another with consequent frequent changes in the ruling party, reached comic proportions. 

After January 26, 2016, within a few weeks of President’s rule, Mr Pul of the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) became the CM for about five months from February to July. Next, Pema Khandu became the Congress CM from July till September. Mr Khandu then left the Congress and was the PPA CM from September to December 2016. On December 31, 2016, Mr Khandu moved to the BJP with 33 MLAs and has been the BJP CM since then. 

Mr Pul was fluent in Hindi and, as of now, there are no indications from official sources that the accusatory letter was not written by him. In his own words, Mr Pul was an orphan from a poor family who gradually made good as a contractor. He had held ministerial positions in the past and according to Mr Pul’s note he accepted the CM’s position in February 2016 because he felt he could help develop the state. 

 

In this note Mr Pul has made detailed financial corruption allegations against former CMs — Dorjee Khandu (Pema Khandu’s father), Nabam Tuki and Pema Khandu. According to Mr Pul, when judgments are eventually delivered in cases pending in the Supreme Court against Mr Tuki and Mr Khandu, his accusations would be proved right. A separate set of allegations are against serving MLAs who, according to Mr Pul, demanded large sums of money to side with him so that he could continue as the CM beyond July 2016. 

Mr Pul’s finger of accusation also points at Delhi-based former senior Congress ministers and party leaders who either accepted bribes in 2008 or demanded money in 2009. Mr Pul alleges that the Supreme Court was partisan in overturning a Guwahati High Court judgment which authorised a CBI inquiry against Mr Tuki in a public distribution scheme (PDS) scam case.  

Mr Pul’s note appears to be somewhat self-serving in detailing his own stellar unblemished record while making numerous allegations. However, his assertions remind us about the disproportionate assets case which involved former Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa and Sasikala Natarajan. In that case, the Karnataka High Court curiously overturned what appeared to lay persons to be a reasonable judgment of the Special Trial Court. Twenty years after this case was initiated, the Supreme Court finally ruled on February 14, 2017 that the late Jayalalithaa and Ms Natarajan were guilty of corruption.  

On February 24, 2017, The Times of India reported that Dangwimsai Pul, Mr Pul’s widow, had withdrawn her letter of February 17 which was sent to the Chief Justice of India seeking an investigation into allegations against two judges named in Mr Pul’s suicide note. It was also reported that Ms Pul’s counsel had questioned why her letter was converted into a criminal writ petition by the Supreme Court. The argument against this action was that if the Supreme Court dismisses the writ petition it would be near impossible to get an administrative investigation done on the accusations made by Mr Pul.   

Subsequently, on March 1, 2017, The Times of India reported that Ms Pul had submitted a petition to the office of the vice-president on February 28, 2017, seeking registration of FIRs against sitting justices of the Supreme Court. According to press reports, Mr Pul’s widow chose to give this petition to the vice-president since Mr Pul’s note makes allegations against the sitting president of India. 

To sum up, Mr Pul may have committed suicide because he was mentally disturbed. And, it could be that the allegations in Mr Pul’s note are totally false. Nevertheless, Mr Pul has made specific charges against those who held or currently hold the highest positions in government and judiciary. Consequently, to counter cynicism about constitutional authorities, the central government and the judiciary need to collaborate to carry out transparent investigations into Mr Pul’s accusations and keep Parliament fully informed.

The writer is the RBI Chair Professor at ICRIER

 

j.bhagwati@gmail.com