'No Chicken Curry, No Mutton Curry, Only Gadkari'

NEW DELHI: “No chicken curry, no mutton curry, only Gadkari”, was one of the slogans raised in Parliament with the Opposition uniting in demanding the resignation of the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways. Both Houses of Parliament are being repeatedly adjourned, as the Opposition refusing to accept his explanation are demanding action.

In the process of course the controversial Goods and Services Tax and Land Acquisition Bills are pushed to the back burner with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plea to the Opposition parties to get at least the GST Bill passed falling on angry deaf ears. The treasury benches shouted back “chor machaye shor” targeting the Congress but given the nature of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report, there was not much heart in the counter.

Congress leader in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma said that they were only trying to help the Prime Minister “who is for zero tolerance to corruption. Where is zero tolerance? We want that zero tolerance. You cannot have two standards.”

The Purti ghost has clearly come back after a lapse of a few years to haunt Gadkari whose political career has been impacted. The CAG has in its audit report found that Purti Sakhar Karkhana Ltd (PSKL) has violated the terms and conditions of the subsidy schemes availed by it. Gadkari is one of the promoters and/or directors” of the company, with the Minister insisting in Parliament that he was not specifically named or charged in the report. However, he was shouted down and finally sent out part of his explanation on twitter, basically centering around the plea that the law should take its own course, and that he was not guilty.

According to the CAG, PSKL was sanctioned a loan of Rs 84.12 crores by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) in violation of the guidelines. REDA recovered only Rs 71.35 crores “resulting in a sacrifice of Rs 12.77 crores,” the report said. PSKL did not comply with the conditions for the interest subsidy with the CAG report clearly stating, “the borrower violated the terms and conditions for subsidy schemes.” The project scheduled to be commissioned in February 2004, was finally commissioned in March 2007, and then switched two years later to a 100% coal based operation. This ran counter to the allowance of up to 25% prescribed in the subsidy scheme.

PSKL has continued to plague Gadkari’s political career. Earlier media investigation had recorded foul play, to the point of drivers and staff being appointed as directors of a firm that invested in Gadkari’s company. A group of 16 companies, including Ideal Road Builders had invested in PSKL with directors of these firms including his driver, an accountant and other employees as revealed in media reports three years ago. As The Times of India had reported at the time, “according to records with the Registrar of Companies, five of the companies that invested in the group were housed in a chawl in Mumbai, but the owner of the chawl claimed he had never heard of any of the companies. Three other companies were registered in another location in south Mumbai and again the firms were found not to be operating from the location.

While the records are mostly of years ago, the government has now said it will swing into action and will probe the curious investment patterns in the group.”

The Opposition, armed now with the CAG report, is in no mood to relent. The government that had extended Parliament by three days in a bid to pass the Bills, amidst stiff resistance from the Opposition,is now faced with an impasse with the Congress so far refusing to accept the Minister’s clarification.