Another confrontation between the government and opposition appeared imminent with Congress today bringing Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the line of fire over alleged irregularities in Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, dubbing it a bigger scam then in 2G and coal blocks allocation.
Party spokespersons Jairam Ramesh and Shaktisinh Gohil demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the alleged scam of Rs 20,000 crore in the state owned GSPC when Modi was the Chief Minister
On a day when the dates of the next session of Parliament were announced, they told reporters that the Prime Minister, who often quoted Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru these days, should either agree for a JPC probe or handover the inquiry to a sitting Supreme Court judge.
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Ramesh reminded the Prime Minister that Nehru was instrumental in holding judicial probe into the Mundhra scandal that led to the resignation of the then Finance Minister T T Krishnamachari.
"Duping of state exchequer, playing fraud with public money and squandering of public resources to profiteer private company under the watch of the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi stands exposed by CAG report tabled in the state Assembly on March 31," alleged Gohil, who is an MLA in Gujarat.
They alleged that the latest report of CAG lays bare the "Modi Model" of "malicious enrichment" of a private company Geo Global Resources(India) and its parent US organisation GeoGlobal Resources, which were "gifted away" 10 per cent of free shares in the KG Basin gas block.
Modi's announcement in June 2005 about discovery of 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas by GSPC in the KG basin had resulted in appreciation of the GeoGlobal stock in the U S 15,000 time, they said, posing a host of questions to the Prime Minister.
While Ramesh said that the Gujarat scam was "bigger" than that of the coal blocks and 2G allocation, party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that the Congress-led UPA was quick to take action against the concerned Ministers.
They claimed that CAG report of audit of GSPC for 2011-12 to 2014-15 appears to have been "deliberately delayed" in order not to permit the truth of "plunder" of public money to be exposed before people.
Ramesh said that the GSPC could be the first state owned firm whose functioning has been commented adversely in five CAG reports spread over a long period.
Congress leaders are saying that the issue would dominate the Parliament session. The Lalit Modi controversy and the Vyapam scam had paralysed major part of proceedings in two sessions of Parliament last year.
The next session of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will commence on April 25 and is likely to continue till May 13, like the second part of the budget session of Parliament which was prorogued midway.
"Modi is new to the House and he is here for only
two-and-a-half years and he does not how to speak," Sibal said, adding that Singh had never attacked the Prime Minister in such language.
To a question on the former Prime Minister's 'plunder' and 'loot' remarks, Sibal said, "That is not the way the Prime Minister speaks. It was in the reference of ways of policy and that resulted in plunder and loot. It is not personal. Dr. Manmohan Singh never attacked the Prime Minister personally."
"Unless he (Modi) says that by mistake he said this and he apologises, how can you have a dialogue with this kind of language used against late Indira Gandhi and against Dr Manmohan Singh. You cannot get personal in a debate," he said.
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said that never before has this kind of "derogatory" remarks been used against a former Prime Minister.
"I have never seen a sitting PM making such derogatory remarks against ex-PM. We for six years had Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the PM. He was always all praise for ex-PMs. This PM has been saying all that have happened in this country is because of him... This kind of a language we cannot accept," he said.
Another party leader, Renuka Chowdhury, said that she was "alarmed and sad" that this country was coming to this and "we walked out to keep our self-respect".
"I am alarmed, sad that this is what the country is coming to. You have a PM coming to Parliament and does not even keep that much respect for a fellow colleague and former PM. He has revealed himself to be such a small man... We cannot stoop to such levels so we walked out. Our self-respect is intact. Let the PM prove his after March 8," she said, referring to the last date of polling in the ongoing Assembly election in five states.
Congress leader Ahmed Patel said that it does not "behove" of a Prime Minister. "I do not have words to condemn it," he said.
