Pawar raps Jairam, supports Tata, queries handling of loan scam

Union agriculture minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar today attacked his colleague, environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s headline-making showcause notice to the Lavasa Lake City project near Pune.

And, he said Tata Group chairman, Ratan Tata, deserved to be taken seriously on his widely reported remarks on the Niira Radia tapes scam. Tata has taken the government to the Supreme Court on the issue.

Also, by implication, Pawar faulted the finance ministry’s handliing of the recent loan scam controversy. The Central Bureau of Investigation, he said, should not be used too often. “A probe is fine but we also have to see that the situation does not go to that level where banks and bank officials will not take any decision on granting loans (in future). Adding, for good measure, “I could not understand what was the finance minister’s responsibility and what was the responsibility of CBI.”

Given its other political difficulties in recent days, the government could have done without this problematic set of interventions.

He said all this during an interaction with journalists outside Parliament. On Lavasa, Pawar said he could not make any sense of the notice sent by the Jairam Ramesh’s ministry. “The ongoing project has already sold around 1,600 houses and there are labourers working there. The environment ministry should have consulted (my) agriculture ministry before sending the notice,” he said.

In its notice, Ramesh’s ministry had asked for an explanation why the structures on the 25,000-acre site should not be demolished. Ramesh, who enjoys a good rapport with his party brass, didn’t hit back at Pawar directly but maintained there was “no prejudice” involved in the showcause notice. “Lavasa is attacking me personally. It is unfair and unfortunate,” he said today.

On Ratan Tata’s remarks, Pawar said today: :When a person like him makes a statement, I think we should take him seriously...Ratan Tata is not an ordinary man...He commands respect not only in India but also outside.”

Tata has moved the Supreme Court to stop publication of his taped conversations with his group’s public relations’ agent, Niira Radia. After the media carried his conversations with Radia, tapped by government sleuths, Tata said in a recent TV interview that this and other developments in recent weeks were akin to those in a “banana republic”.