Chennai: DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Wednesday said action will be taken against former telecom minister A Raja if he was found guilty in the 2G spectrum scam.
"We will take action without any hesitation if Raja is found guilty," the Tamil Nadu chief minister told reporters on a day when CBI raided the residences of Raja, his aides and relatives in New Delhi and Tamil Nadu as part of its probe.
Asked about the party's stand on a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe, he said he favoured it only if it brought under its ambit the BJP-led NDA regime also when spectrum allocations were made on 'first come-first serve basis'.
Karunanidhi said he backed the Supreme Court's observation that the probe into the 2G spectrum allocation cover the period from 2001 (when the NDA was in power). Asked whether he had "blackmailed" the Congress on the scam, as alleged by his arch rival, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa, he shot back, "I never indulge in blackmailing like others."
Ever since Raja came under a cloud in the spectrum scam, Karunanidhi has been strongly defending the lawyer- politician and repeatedly played the Dalit card to support him. Now, for the first time, he said action will be taken against the former minister if he was found guilty of any wrongdoing.
However, Karunanidhi continued to defend the 'Dalit face' of DMK when he said Raja was being targeted as he did not have the "sacred thread", implying that he was not a Brahmin.
The DMK patriarch had earlier likened the scam to the Hindu mythological story of demon Bagasura having a teeth to the length of 30 miles. He had also remarked as to how an individual could have looted Rs 1.76 lakh crore, the 'presumptive loss' as quantified by CAG.
Meanwhile, ousted Telecom Minister A Raja, from being one of the most influential young leaders of the DMK, is fast becoming a liability for the party ahead of the Assembly elections, with sources indicating there is a move to distance the party from him and thus from the scam.
Though the party has supported him to the hilt so far, what has changed the mood is the perception that the scam has dented the image of the DMK ahead of the elections. This despite the slew of welfare measures that the party's government rolled out one after the other in the last four and a half years.
Officially, Raja is the propaganda secretary of the party. According to a DMK source, it is fast becoming untenable for the party to back Raja on the face of Wednesady's raids and other recent developments including his name figuring in the case pertaining to an attempt to influence a judge of the Madras High Court.
The move to remove Raja has the backing of a section of the senior leadership and the family, sources added.
The DMK may not distance itself immediately from its scam tainted former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja, whose homes were raided Wednesday over the 2G spectrum controversy, party sources said.
Tamil Nadu's ruling party feels that if it drops Raja now, it would amount to admitting that he was guilty of wrongdoing, the sources said. The party's reaction came hours after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) searched the houses of Raja in New Delhi and Tamil Nadu, and that too was necessitated by the dramatic revelations that he tried to influence a judge in a bail case in Chennai.
The CBI raids are part of the investigation process. Raja has been saying that he would come out clean "and the party believes that", a senior party leader told IANS, dmanding not to be named. Will Raja give up his party post?
"That angle has not been looked at. As of now, the party is behind Raja," said the source. Raja has been accused of handing over the 2G spectrum/radio waves to mobile telephony companies at throw away price and also of favouring some firms.
DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has been playing the Dravidian card in support of Raja and has said that the entire controversy is an "Aryan ploy to bring down a Dravidian".
What added fuel to the fire against Raja was the revelation of the Madras High Court bench Tuesday that the former minister tried to influence a judge to grant bail to two accused in a case investigated by CBI.
Raja then told reporters that he was resigning from parliament so that the stalled by the opposition until now it could function normally again.
Source: Indian Express & IANS
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4674651&page=0
The Tamil Nadu CM is right about 1 thing - that a single person could not have looted that big an amount. But I do not agree that a sacred thread gets a special status. Infact those wearing a sacred thread are untouchables. But those with a Vatican connection are sure welcome (Oops. was that supposed to be not said?!)
ReplyDeleteAlso, what was a DMK guy sent in to cover a vacancy left by another DMK guy? Coincidence? That was definitely "to keep it in the family" And also, the ploy of playing the Dravidian card is a old trick. The DMK supremo should be hung from the nearest tree.