 "Arun Jaitley")
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday told the Lok Sabha that the government had no “holy cows” to protect and action would be taken against those found guilty, “howsoever important”, in the alleged irregularities in the Aircel-Maxis deal.
The Lok Sabha took up a discussion on the issue after All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) members disrupted proceedings in both the Houses for a second successive day demanding “action” against Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, for his alleged involvement in the deal, which is currently being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the income-tax authorities.
While AIADMK protested on the Aircel-Maxis issue, the Congress members in the Rajya Sabha trooped into the well demanding investigation into an alleged land scam in Gujarat. The two Houses then took up the motion of thanks for the the President Address. Rajya Sabha leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad punched holes in the government’s claims about its achievements and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi made a combative speech in the Lok Sabha.
On his reply on the short duration discussion on the Aircel-Maxis issue, Jaitley, who also holds the charge of the corporate affairs ministry, said the ED and investigative wing of the Income Tax Department had recovered several "incriminating" documents which were being scrutinised and charge sheets would be filed. He said details of assets held by certain entities in India and abroad had also been obtained.
He dismissed allegations that the government was going slow in the 2G and Aircel-Maxis cases as "absolutely incorrect".
"Whatever was the stand of the earlier government, we have not been influenced by that stand at all,” the Finance Minister said. He said he wouldn’t like to divulge details as it might prejudice the investigation. The minister said three Acts involved are related to Income Tax, Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), and Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA).
Jaitley, then the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, had raised the issue nearly four years back on May 14, 2012. Chidambaram, then the Home Minister in the UPA2 government, asked his “friend of 22 years” to take “a dagger and plunge it into my heart” rather than question his integrity that he as the Finance Minister had benefitted a company run by his son.
Meanwhile, the Congress and other Opposition parties have also decided to move amendments to the president’s speech in the Rajya Sabha. The government is in a minority in the Upper House, and was embarrassed when the Opposition had successfully moved amendments to the President’s speech last year as well.
The highlight of the day, however, was Rahul Gandhi’s speech in the Lok Sabha. The Congress vice president repeatedly riled the treasury benches with his sharp critique of government’s policies, including recently announced scheme to allow those with ‘black’ or unaccounted money to turn into ‘white’. He called it Jaitley’s ‘fair and lovely’ scheme and pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to put people with ‘black money’ in jail.
When pointed out that he had incorrectly addressed the chair as ‘Madam Speaker’ when it was a male member of the House who was presiding at the time, Gandhi said he, unlike those occupying the treasury benches, didn’t belong to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He said unlike the RSS, he doesn’t claim to know everything and is prone to make mistakes. The Congress leader ridiculed the government for promising 20 million jobs a year but all that it has managed to deliver is the ‘Make in India’ ‘babbar sher’ or lion.
Gandhi said he was surprised to find Jaitley extolling the virtues of the UPA’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA). He said Modi was a “powerful man” and people in his party were scared of telling him the truth. The three time MP from Amethi said the Congress was the party of Mahatma Gandhi, while the BJP of VD Savarkar.
Rahul Gandhi criticized the government for imprisoning student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and its apathy towards Dalit student Rohith Vemula. He criticized the PM’s Pakistan policy and as well the claims of having signed the Naga Accord, which turned out to be non-existent. “The country is not the PM. The PM is not the country,” said Rahul, as he recounted how leaders like Pakistan’s Yahya Khan or erstwhile Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic stopped “conversations” between their various people in the name of nationalism and led to the break-up of their country.
