BJP should walk its talk – open letter to Mr. Nitin Gadkari

Dear Mr. Gadkari,

As someone who, in a letter to him, had questioned Dr. Manmohan Singh’s non-interventionist conduct in the 2G spectrum scam and this good three days before A. Raja’s resignation, I fully support you and your party in demanding from Dr. Singh an explanation for his utter failure to discipline and control Raja and put a stop to his arbitrary and iniquitous decisions which ultimately caused a loss of revenue of the order of Rs.1.76 lac crore or US$39 billion to the national exchequer. I do not know whether a Joint Parliamentary Committee headed by a Congress M.P. would be the right agency to investigate this gigantic scam but the strident manner in which the demand for a JPC probe is being resisted by the Congress party could only mean that the Opposition is on the right track.

I am, however, afraid that your unambiguous stand against corruption is being undermined by the less than exemplary ways of your own party’s chief minister in Karnataka. His act of denotifying government land to allot it to his own children is regrettable and more so is his explanation that in doing so he was only following the precedents set by his predecessors. Instead of conveniently repeating the others’ malfeasance why can’t these people show some character and set good precedents by their righteous conduct – Is it too much to ask from a politician? B.S. Yeddyurappa, too, won’t be able to answer this. He has used his public office for private gain, and this is the classic definition of corruption. His obvious act of nepotism is no different from that by Ashok Chavhan of the Congress party and the punishment to him should be the same – he has to go!

Karnataka is an important state for you, your first success in the southern India, and in the likely event of your party not finding a generally acceptable replacement for BSY, the government may fall. But do not let this or any other consideration come in the way of a decision to ask for his resignation. Corruption is corruption and it ought to be abhorred and condemned whether it is yours and NDA's or the Congress party’s and UPA's, and the least punishment that can be meted out to the corrupt is to remove them from office. Please do this to Yeddyurappa without losing precious time; and you will see that it will give your party a new impetus and vigour in its battle against those responsible for the mother of all scams.

Thanking you,

Sincerely,

Kanan V. Jaswal