The Hindu : Opposition seeks Naik's resignation, probe by SC judge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 07, 2002

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Opposition seeks Naik's resignation, probe by SC judge

By Our New Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI AUG. 6. The political storm caused by the petrol pump allotment scandal continued to rage for the third day today — Parliament adjourned within minutes yet again, the ruling and Opposition benches hardened their stance and no resolution was in sight despite a meeting of the party leaders called by the Lok Sabha Speaker, Manohar Joshi.

The bottom line of the Opposition demand was a full inquiry into the scandal by a sitting Supreme Court judge, resignation of the Petroleum Minister, Ram Naik, and some kind of legislative backing for the cancellation of all allotments since January 2000, ordered by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, on Monday to prevent parties from getting interim injunctions in courts.

But the treasury benches were equally adamant. ``We have done what we had to,'' the Government sources said, and if the Opposition continued to disrupt Parliament it would be counter-productive. The Bharatiya Janata Party and senior Government leaders categorically rejected the idea of Mr. Naik's resignation.

The bottom line for the BJP is that if indeed some legislative backing is to be given to the cancellation order, it should be made effective from 1983 when the system of such allotments began. This was, in fact, stated by some MPs at the BJP parliamentary party meeting this morning, chaired by Mr. Vajpayee (who did not speak a word) and addressed by the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, who described the order as a "historic decision.''

The MPs generally felt that that the Congress had "enjoyed'' this ``perquisite'' for about 20 years, and if the allotments to BJP workers' relatives were to be cancelled, all the allotments for the last 20 years must also be cancelled.

Apparently, neither the Prime Minister nor Mr. Advani responded to this. But Mr. Advani did tell an MP sharply that he had not been elected to get a petrol pump allotted.

In the Rajya Sabha, there was complete unity among the Opposition MPs who met and issued a joint statement demanding "a commission of inquiry headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court aided by investigating agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation'' and the "resignation of the Petroleum Minister and others involved in the scandals.''

This statement was signed, among others, by the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Congress leader, Manmohan Singh, his party colleagues, Pranab Mukherjee and Kapil Sibal, the CPI (M) MPs, Ramachandran Pillai and Nilotpal Basu, Prem Chand Gupta of the RJD, Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Debabrata Biswas of the AIFB, J. Chittaranjan of the CPI and MPs of the Muslim League, the RSP and the RPI.

The Opposition also charged Mr. Vajpayee with making a "hasty unilateral announcement'' which was "nothing but a pathetic cover-up.'' In a separate statement, the CPI-ML (Liberation) described the cancellation as a "face-saving" exercise.

The Opposition view, articulated by the Congress and the CPI (M), was that the cancellation order was an "eyewash'' as the Government had calculated that it would have no effect since there was no legal sanctity to the cancellation.

According to Somnath Chatterjee (CPI-M), the decision was only for "public consumption.''

The Congress also emphasised that if the Government was serious about the cancellation, it should file caveats in every court to ensure against dealers securing interim injunctions against the Prime Minister's decision.

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