People's Democracy

Sack Dayanidhi Maran, CPI(M) Demands

S P Rajendran

THE Tamilnadu state committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded that the union textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran must be sacked from the union cabinet and that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) must inquire into allegations of the acts of commission and omission when he was the union minister for telecommunications between 2004 and 2007.

In a resolution adopted at the two-day meeting of the state committee of the party, which concluded at Chennai on June 2, the party said that Maran was alleged to have been involved in various deals when he was the telecom minister.

The Tehelka magazine, the resolution said, had revealed how he helped a conglomerate buy the Aircel telecom company and also allocated 2G spectrum to the company, as a result of which the Sun TV owned by his brother Kalanithi Maran, benefited to the tune of Rs 800 crore.

Besides, the New Indian Express had revealed that Dayanidhi Maran had installed 323 phone connections of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd at his home. The same report had pointed out that the CBI had written to the prime minister in this regard as early as 2007 but no action was initiated.

Based on these allegations, the CPI(M) demanded that Maran must be dropped from the union council of ministers. Besides, a CBI inquiry should be ordered into the alleged loss to the exchequer.

CPI(M) Central Committee member T K Rangarajan presided over the meeting. Polit Bureau member K Varadarajan, state secretary G Ramakrishnan, Central Control Commission member N Sankariah and Central Committee members N Varadarajan and U Vasuki took part in the meeting. Prakash Karat, general secretary of the party, participated in the meeting on the first day.

KARAT DEMANDS

SERIOUS PROBE

Prakash Karat has demanded a “serious investigation” into the allegations that union textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran had indirectly been a beneficiary of the kickbacks.

“What I have seen of the case, I think it requires a serious investigation,” he told reporters after calling on AIADMK general secretary and Tamilnadu chief minister Ms Jayalalithaa on June 1. “I hope the prime minister and the central government will immediately get this [matter] investigated,” Prakash Karat said.

This was the first meeting between the two leaders after the AIADMK led front swept the April 13 Tamilnadu Assembly polls.