Sunday, Nov 23, 2003
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By Our Special Correspondent
Mr. Shankar's denial was promptly followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Venkaiah Naidu, demanding that "the Congress party apologise to the President, the Union Ministers concerned, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the people," for levelling baseless charges and taking the "totally false" matter to the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. In an interview to PTI and some television channels, Mr. Shankar said he had made "no complaints to the Prime Minister, orally or in writing." He described news reports on the issue as "total lies" and added that in his discussion with Mr. Vajpayee he talked of some issues related to investigation on which there were misgivings. He also discussed "decision-making in the PSUs," interference in their affairs, autonomy for executives and the question of "bringing about corporate governance in PSUs." Mr. Shankar is reported to have said: "I am not a `lok pal' or a `lok ayukt' to complain about people... our job is to monitor the functioning, not to lodge complaints... I do not know why such rumours or canards are spread." The CVC said he had been quoted to have allegedly named Ministers such as the Law and Commerce Minister, Arun Jaitley, and the Petroleum Minister, Ram Naik. "These [allegations] were wild, baseless and totally absurd.." He said he had worked under Mr. Naik and he would not have made such a complaint against him. He had hoped that after the Prime Minister's denial of the allegation last week, the matter would be buried, but it was unfortunate that the issue was continuing to be discussed. The so-called "scandal'' surfaced in newspapers three weeks ago. The allegation was that Mr. Shankar had met Mr. Vajpayee and mentioned that several PSU chiefs had been approached by the Ministers concerned for personal and undue favours, including money for party funds. The PSUs under the control of several BJP Ministers as well as those of allied parties were mentioned in the reports. More recently, a Congress delegation met Mr. Kalam and gave him a representation asking that the matter be inquired into. The Opposition demanded a parliamentary probe into the matter.
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