Minister Kept In The Dark On Transfer

Fresh dimensions were added to the M K Bezboruah transfer episode yesterday with a public interest petition being filed in the Supreme Court against the transfer while the Union personnel minister R Janarthanam_-an AIADMK leader_-said `proper procedure' for his transfer was not followed.

The BJP-led government showed no signs of acceding to Jayalalitha's fresh demand to reinstate Bezboruah in Enforcement Directorate, but it was clearly embarrassed by her allegations that the transfer was effected after a media baron allegedly paid bribes to persons close to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The petition challenged the transfer on the ground that the it was effected to scuttle the prosecution of Jayalalitha on whose support the present government was dependent. Filed by Centre for Public Interest Litigation, the petition said the order transferring Bezboruah was "arbitrary and malafide and made for extraneous considerations".

 

Seeking a stay on the transfer and the subsequent appointment of M C Joshi as acting the director of ED, the petitioner alleged that "by this order the Centre was not only seeking to scuttle the prosecution of Jayalalitha and her

associates, but was trying to send a signal to the law enforcing agencies that they must play along with the wishes and dictates of the persons in power and those supporting them, otherwise they would be removed".

According to Janarthanan, even though his ministry was directly involved in such transfers of officials, he had been side-tracked in the decision-making process. In the normal course, the file regarding Bezboruah's transfer should have been routed through him, but in this case `'the regular process was not gone through''.

He said he had asked Bezboruah not to hand over the charge but the latter expressed his inability to do so. Asked as to why he was side-tracked, he quipped: "You ask Vajpayee." On the question whether there was any danger to the government following the AIADMK's stand on Cauvery issue, he said his party's right to press for acceptance of its demand should not be construed as threat to the government.

"Did any body bother to know how many threats the DMK held out to the United Front government?'' he asked. He said his party had played a major role in the formation of the present coalition government, and claimed, "We were not keen to join the government. In fact, we were asked to do so."

He said the Cauvery water issue was a part of the coalition government's national agenda for governance, so his party was within its rights to press for it. "By accepting the new accord, the DMK government has only compromised the interests of the people of the state," Janarthanam said.

Accusing the DMK of not pressing the demand for a "better deal" for the state on sharing of Cauvery water when the United Front was in power, he said they wanted to remain in power at any cost.