Salient points in the address by
Shri L.K. Advani
Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha)

At a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Party in New Delhi on 29 April 2008

For the past several days, the Opposition in Parliament has been articulating the sense of outrage felt by the people over the revelation of a scandal involving a DMK minister in the UPA Government. The minister has not only admitted to his role in the scandal — seeking favours from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for companies owned by his sons — but has brazenly adopted a “So What?” attitude.

What has added further stink to the scandal is the disclosure that the Prime Minister’s Office wrote as many as eight letters to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas recommending the DMK Minister’s case.

Any Prime Minister who believes in the principle of accountability and respects the canons of parliamentary democracy would clarify his position in such a matter in the two Houses of Parliament. It is the duty of the Opposition to raise this demand — which we are discharging. And it is the duty of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to make a statement in Parliament — which he is not discharging.

The Prime Minister is duty-bound to make a statement in Parliament on two counts. Firstly, as the head of the government, he cannot shirk his responsibility over the misdeeds of a member of his Cabinet. Secondly, he is answerable to the actions of the PMO.

The Congress spokesman’s lame excuse that the PMO merely “forwarded” the requests made by the DMK minister can satisfy none except those who wish a quick burial of the scandal.

The silence of the UPA chairperson, who, as everyone knows, is the wielder of political power in the government, is also eloquent.

The silence of both the Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson shows how much the Congress party and governments headed by it have departed from the standards of probity and accountability that prevailed in the early decades of Independence.

It is instructive to recall today the infamous Mundra scandal that rocked Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s Government in the late 1950s. It was none other than Feroze Gandhi — the least remembered member of the Nehru-Gandhi family and one who lent the ‘Gandhi’ name to the family — who, in spite of being a Congress MP, made an explosive disclosure in Parliament about the Life Insurance Corporation putting in 1.24 crore rupees in industrialist Haridas Mundhra's sinking companies without consulting Parliament's Investment Committee.

Feroze Gandhi, backed by the Opposition, forced Nehru’s government to appoint a commission of inquiry, which was headed by Justice Mohammed Currim Chagla. Justice Chagla's report held Finance Minister Krishnamachari morally responsible for the episode and he was forced to resign in 1958. The public hearings conducted by Justice Chagla remain an unsurpassed case of enforcement of probity in public life.

I would like to remind the Prime Minister of two points that Justice Chagla made in his report, both of which have been scornfully ignored by the UPA government.

Firstly, “In a parliamentary form of government, Parliament should be taken into confidence at the earliest stage to avoid embarrassment from other sources of information.”

Secondly, "The inquiry has been an education for the public. It should also act as a corrective to administrators all over the country, because in future they will act with the consciousness that their actions may be subjected to public scrutiny."

While Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s personal integrity is beyond doubt, it is now equally beyond doubt that he is neither able nor trying to enforce probity in his government. In dealing with corruption in his government — and it is now common knowledge that the UPA government is by far the most corrupt in India’s history — he is exhibiting the same helplessness that he earlier did in acting against crime-tainted ministers.

Dr. Manmohan Singh should know that his continued silence and his disrespect for Parliament are further contributing to the devaluation of the office of Prime Minister.

So far a the UPA Chairperson is concerned, it is significant that she should have broken her silence on the violence in Nandigram for the first time during her visit to West Bengal yesterday. She has done so only after the Communist parties started protesting against the UPA Government’s failure to contain price rise. Her attempt to shift the blame for price rise on state governments is a disingenuous attempt to hide the failure and mismanagement of the Central Government.