People's Democracy

CPI(M) CAMPAIGN IRKS DMK

 

Tamilnadu Network of Fraud Getting Exposed

 

 S P Rajendran

 

ONCE again the raids of CBI officials exposed a broad network of corruption in 2G spectrum issue.

 

A team of more than 150 CBI officials from Delhi came down to Tamilnadu on December 15 to conduct searches, a week after the December 8 raids at former telecom minister A Raja’s residence in Delhi and that of his aides in the national capital and Chennai.

 

The offices of auditors of chief minister M Karunanidhi’s wife, Rajathi Ammal, and A Raja were searched on Wednesday, December 15, as part of the CBI raids being carried out across Tamilnadu in connection with the 2G spectrum scam. The CBI also raided Raja’s residence at his native Velur village at Perambalur, his erstwhile Lok Sabha constituency.

 

Besides Raja’s residence, officials raided the premises of Kamaraj, a senior journalist and associate editor of Tamil magazine Nakkeeran, as well as Raja’s siblings at Tiruchirapalli and other close aides in Chennai, Tiruchirappalli and Perambalur districts.

 

Tamil Maiyam, which describes itself as a registered Indian non-profit organisation, was also raided by the CBI. Ms Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP, is on the board of directors of Tamil Maiyam while Rev Jegath Gasper Raj is the managing trustee. The organisation, which organises the annual cultural event Chennai Sangamam amidst much fanfare, claims to work with the main objectives of “promoting Tamil art, literature and culture with special thrust on research, creative productions and publications.”

 

CBI officials also raided at Tiruchirappalli the residence of a Tamil TV channel reporter, G L Narasimhan, who has been close to Raja.

 

While the officials raided 27 places in Tamilnadu, they searched 7 places including the corporate lobbyist Nira Radia's Vaishnavi Communications office and TRAI's former director Bijal's house in Delhi.

 

Sources said these raids were conducted on the basis of the information from Raja’s dairy, which was unearthed by CBI officials during the raid on December 8.

 

It was after the continuous indictment from the Supreme Court that the CBI started the raids. The extremely shocked people of Tamilnadu and the country now expect that the entire spectrum of network of the 2G corruption, including the links on the Congress side, would be brought to light.  

 

CPI(M)’S

CAMPAIGN

With this demand of a thorough probe, CPI(M) cadres kickstarted on December 5 their week long protest campaign against corruption at high levels, at thousands of street corner meetings in Tamilnadu.

 

As planned by the state committee of the party, the cadres organised street corner meetings at more than 5,000 centres, dharnas at over 100 centres and public meetings at many places as a part of the campaign.

 

More than two lakh booklets were published for the campaign. With powerful wordings, lakhs of pamphlets also received a good response from the people.

 

Though there were heavy rains in 15 districts in the coastal and south Tamilnadu, the campaign of the CPI(M) was well received and a large number of people came to the street corner meetings.

 

CPI(M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan, Central Committee T K Rangarajan, the party’s assembly group leader K Balabharathi and state secratariat members participated in these street corner meetings and dharnas.

 

Irked by the CPI(M) campaign, chief minister Karunanidhi penned down many comments attacking the party in his organ Murasoli. He, however, received suitable rejoinders from Theekkathir, daily organ of the CPI(M) state committee.

 

As a move to prevent the campaign, the police in Thirunelveli district denied permission at the last minute for a series of public meetings of opposition parties, including the CPI(M), on the 2G scam, in the city from December 5 to 10. T K Rangarajan, who was scheduled to address some of these meetings, criticised the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its Tamilnadu government for denying permission to the opposition parties for organising public meetings on the scam.

 

“Even as former union minister A Raja has reportedly involved in the judicial process, the DMK government is not allowing the opposition to conduct meetings to express their opposition in a democratic manner,” Rangarajan said at a press conference in the city. Even after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had stated that the nation had suffered a huge loss, the government was not really interested in identifying the culprits involved in this “mother of all scams,” Rangarajan added. However, instead of attempting to cover up the 2G spectrum scam and shield those involved, the United Progressive Alliance government would do better to order a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe as that alone would be able to break the deadlock in parliament, he further said.