NDA Resolution on Tainted Ministers
July 06, 2004

Members of Parliament belonging to the constituent and the supporting parties of the National Democratic Alliance met on 6th July 2004 and adopted the following resolution.

The National Democratic Alliance strongly condemns the arrogant and brazen manner in which the Congress-led UPA government has rejected our demand for the removal of tainted ministers. What is especially reprehensible is the Prime Minister's callous rationalization, bordering on justification, of his government's untenable stand on the matter.

By saying that the NDA government, too, had "tainted" ministers, Dr. Manmohan Singh is attempting to gloss over the basic difference between allegations and charges attracted during the course of mass political agitations and charges due to involvement in heinous crimes, including corruption, murder and acts of grave moral turpitude. The NDA in its memorandum submitted to Respected Rashtrapatiji during the last session of Parliament has detailed the criminal cases that taint the ministers concerned.

The Prime Minister seems to have forgotten that the burden of taint carried by one of his ministers, who was the Chief Minister of Bihar, was so heavy that it caused all-round outrage forcing him to resign. His induction into the government is tantamount to endorsing his crimes. Worse still, the Prime Minister's action is a slap on the face of the judiciary, which sent him to jail on two occasions and has now kept him on leash with bail. It also demonstrates the utter insensitivity of the Congress and its allies, especially the Marxists, towards the pain and suffering of the people of Bihar due to the anarchy in that State since 1990.

Another minister is charged with attempt to commit murder, cheating, forgery and extortion. Though inducted into the Deve Gowda government in 1996, he was soon dropped when the charges against him were exposed in the media.

Yet another minister carries the charge of having been involved in a racket of giving fake degrees when he was the minister of secondary education in Bihar. He too was forced to resign in the face of public protest.

Dr. Manmohan Singh has brought dishonour to India's democracy by inducting a minister who is charged with having links to an international crime syndicate and who, as an MP in 1998, was involved in a sensational case of kidnapping for ransom.

The Congress-led government has also rewarded another delinquent person with a ministerial post - ironically in the same ministry that had earlier investigated a case of foreign exchange violation and slapped a penalty of Rs. 10 crore against him.

The NDA has made its protest on the issue of tainted ministers known in many ways. We had hoped that our protest action during the three days of the opening session of the 14th Lok Sabha would prompt the government to consider our demand coolly, dispassionately and in light of the values and principles that the Prime Minister himself has often espoused in the past. Our hopes have been belied. Therefore, we are left with no option but to take the following decision.

1: The NDA will continue to highlight its demand for removal of tainted ministers, both within and outside Parliament, until our demand is met.

2: The NDA will continue to articulate its demand in Parliament by focusing our protest mainly against one representative tainted minister, the Minister of Railways, in an appropriate manner.

3: The NDA will boycott the presentation of the Railway Budget.

4: Unlike the Congress, the Communists and the RJD, who frequently disrupted the proceedings of the House during the six-year-long rule of the Vajpayee government, the NDA believes in the smooth functioning of Parliament. By electing us, the people have cast a duty on us to highlight their issues, as well as issues concerning the vital interests of the Nation, on the august forum of Parliament. The NDA will perform this duty conscientiously.

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