Urging His Excellency To Advise The Government To Drop Railway Minister Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav From The Union Cabinet As A Salutary Measure Against Corruption And Criminalisation Of Government
CAMPAIGN against lalu: BJP president L.K.Advani and other NDA leaders addressing mediapersons at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan in New Delhi on Thursday after submitting a memorandum to President A.P.J Abdul Kalam seeking to dismiss Railway Minister Lalu Prasad. Charges have been framed in a Ranchi court against Mr. Prasad in a fodder scam case. — Photo: Anu Pushkarna
Mahamahim Rashtrapatiji,
We, the leaders of the constituent parties of the National Democratic Alliance, ar constrained to submit the following memorandum to you. Deep anguish and a sense of responsibility towards India's democratic system have prompted us to do so.
You will kindly recall that on June 3, 2004, soon after the government of the United Progressive Alliance took office, members of Parliament belonging to the NDA had marched to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to protest against the inclusion of several persons in the Union Council of Ministers who had been chargesheeted or were facing trial in cases relating to corruption, abuse of power and heinous crimes. In a memorandum submitted to you on that day (copy of which is enclosed), we had urged Your Excellency "to kindly take up with the Honourable Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and ensure that tainted ministers are out of government in the larger interest of Parliamentary democracy, public interest, national security and norms of probity in public life."
Since then, the NDA has consistently raised the issue of tainted ministers in the UPA government both inside Parliament and various public fora outside. It has been our endeavour to highlight the outrage felt by all right-thinking people in our country that inclusion of tainted ministers in the Union government is not only a matter of political impropriety born of expediency; rather, it is also an act of moral transgression which brings, for the first time since India's independence, criminalization into the realm of governance at the Centre.
Three days back, on April 25, a special CBI court in Ranchi framed charges against Railway Minister Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav in the infamous fodder scam. The case relates to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 37 crore from the Chaibasa treasury in 1996, when Shri Yadav was the Chief Minister of Bihar, through false receipts of non-existent fodder. When the scandal first broke out and many opposition parties, including the Congress, demanded Shri Yadav's resignation, he had refused to do so with the same arrogance that he is displaying today. However, he had to resign from the chief Ministership on July 25, 1997 after the Supreme Court rejected his anticipatory bail in the DA case (which was an offshoot of the fodder scam) and asked him to surrender.
In that case, Shri Yadav was charged with having amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. In comparison with the DA case, the charges that the Ranchi court has now slapped against Shri Yadav [RC 20 (A)/1996 and RC 68 (A)/1996] for the fraudulent withdrawal of crores of rupees from the state treasury, through "forged and fake" bills issued by the Animal Husbandry Department of the Bihar Government, are far more serious in nature. For instance, the court has framed charges under Sections 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code (punishment for criminal conspiracy), Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), Section 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), Section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), Section 471 (using as genuine a forged document), Section 477 (A) (falsification of accounts), read with Sections 13(2) and 13 (1) (D) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
It may be recalled that the Patna High Court, while referring the fodder scam cases to the CBI in 1996, had observed: "The state government was admittedly in the know of the excess drawals, yet no remedial action whatsoever was taken." The Supreme Court, too, while upholding the direction of the Patna High Court to refer the matter to the CBI for investigation, had directed that "expeditious follow-up action needs to be taken so that no evidence may be lost."
In this context, we would like to refer to unusually critical remarks made on April 26 by the Bihar Governor, Shri Buta Singh, against the RJD governments headed by Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Shrimati Rabri Devi. "The administration earlier did not run on any system. It was not run according to the Constitution or rules."
How Shri Yadav has been trying to escape the long arm of the law during the past eight years is well known. However, since he became a minister in the UPA Government in May 2004, what is especially shocking is that he has been allowed, with the full backing of the UPA Government, to freely misuse his authority in the government and his political clout to subvert the legal processes. The sole aim of these efforts is to get him off the hook. So brazen indeed are these attempts that the Supreme Court was forced to make critical observations on April 26 on the manner in which the income tax cases against Shri Yadav and his wife have been dealt with. Earlier, the Supreme Court had also made critical remarks about the UPA Government's attempts to influence the CBI in the ongoing cases against persons closely linked to the ruling party and coalition.
The ruling coalition has resorted to baseless arguments to oppose our demand for Shri Yadav's resignation. One of these is to cite the Ayodhya cases against some individuals who were ministers in the NDA Government. The attempt to equate cases that originate in a mass movement with those that are related to acts of corruption, heinous crime and gross abuse of power is so disingenuous as to merit no elaboration.
As far as dealing with ministers facing charges of corruption is concerned, we wish to highlight here the contrasting approach taken by the NDA and UPA governments. In the period between 1998 and 2004, the then Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee set high standards of probity by asking Shri Buta Singh to resign from the Cabinet when charges were framed against him. Similar action was taken in the case of Shri Muthaiya, Shri Harin Pathak, Shri Gingee Ramachandran and Shri Dilip Singh Judev, as soon as a judicial shadow was cast upon them.
Earlier, when charges were framed against him in the Jain Hawala case, Shri L.K. Advani lost no time in resigning not only from his position as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, but also Parliament itself. He also vowed not to enter Parliament until he was fully exonerated of the charges. Similarly, Shri Yashwant Sinha resigned as the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly and also from the membership of the Assembly itself. Shri Madanlal Khurana stepped down as the Chief Minister of Delhi as soon as charges were framed against him. It is worth mentioning that all three were cleared of the charges against them in the Jain Hawala case.
Any fair-minded person can see the precipitous fall in the approach to cases of corruption and criminalization since the UPA Government has assumed office. Never in the history of our Republic have persons tainted by grave charges been allowed to disgrace the fair name of the Government of India with their continued presence in the Union Cabinet. Among these tainted ministers, Shri Yadav occupies a unique position both for the criminality that stains his political career and the sheer audacity with which he has time and again defied the norms of democracy.
We hold the Prime Minister guilty of tainting his own high office first by including criminal elements in the Union Government and now, after the framing of charges against Shri Yadav by the special CBI court in Ranchi, by indefensibly defending his continued inclusion in the Union Cabinet.
The Prime Minister may not have much control over criminalization of politics which, unfortunately, enables persons with criminal backgrounds to get elected as Members of Parliament. However, he has full and unfettered authority and prerogative -- indeed, moral obligation - not to include such persons in his council of ministers.
Respected Rashtrapatiji, you are the Head of the Indian State and the Custodian of the Constitution. We have come to you to seek your intervention in this serious matter since the Prime Minister and his Government have chosen to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to our demand for the resignation of Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav from the Union Cabinet. Even our decision to boycott Parliament for three days - a decision which we took with utmost reluctance - has been met with insensitivity and obduracy, which have become the hallmark of the UPA's attitude towards the Opposition.
We therefore earnestly urge you, as the ultimate defender of the high ideals on which the Indian Republic is founded, to advise the Prime Minister to drop Shri Yadav from his Cabinet without any further delay.
* * * * *
Mahamahim Rashtrapatiji, we also take this opportunity to bring to your kind attention the UPA Government's vindictive, confrontationist and hostile attitude towards the Opposition since its very inception. This is exemplified by:
* The manner in which the Governors appointed by the NDA Government were removed;
* The manner in which the NDA Convener and former Raksha Mantri Shri George Fernandes has been targeted and maligned, as is evident from the Government's extraordinary decision to file a second affidavit that contradicts its own first affidavit filed only a fortnight earlier in the matter of defence purchases;
* The manner in which cases against members of the Congress party and its allies are being withdrawn and manipulated, and cases against NDA members are being reopened;
* The manner in which the BJP Government in Goa was destabilized;
* The manner in which a non-NDA government was sought to be installed in Jharkhand, in spite of it having no majority in the Assembly;
* The manner in which the names of schemes and establishments (such as airports) are being changed for the benefit of the ruling party and its dynastic leadership.
The latest addition to this long list of mean-minded actions of the UPA Government is its recent reported attempt to dissuade the visiting President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, from calling on the former Prime Minister and Chairman of the NDA, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. When the visiting dignitary insisted on meeting Shri Vajpayee, he was advised against doing so by going to the latter's residence. Reasons of "protocol" were cited for this advice. That President Musharraf did call on Shri Vajpayee at his residence is another matter. However, it was entirely graceless, to say the least, on the part of the UPA Government to have tried to block the Pakistani President's visit to someone who has made the boldest and most sincere contribution yet to normalizing the relations between India and Pakistan.
Mahamahim Rashtrapatiji, all the above actions, taken together with the Prime Minister's refusal to drop Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav even after serious charges have been framed against him, point to a political mindset and culture of governance that are totally inimical to both the principles of democracy and the vital interests of our Nation. Hence our earnest request for effective Presidential intervention at this crucial juncture, before the Government resorts to even more shocking steps to defile our democracy and defy the rule of law.
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