Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana has finally decided to spill the beans on some of his former BJP colleagues. Today was the turn of former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani as well as the late Pramod Mahajan.
Khurana told reporters that his decision to announce a CBI inquiry into the alleged anomalies in the wheat import from Australia in 1999 had come under attack from his former party colleagues. ‘‘Mahajan called me up and said that Advani was upset about it. I told him that I had announced the probe on former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee’s insistence.’’ The order to import wheat was placed when IK Gujral was the PM, but the consignments had come during the BJP rule, Khurana said.
Khurana also accused Advani of interfering in many matters, including the setting up of the 500-MW Bawana power plant.
‘‘In December 1999, when I was the Delhi Chief Minister, Mahajan came to meet me and said that the power project should go Reliance Industries, as Anil Ambani was ready to contribute money to the party. I told him to let Atalji and Advani decide if Ambani wanted to contribute money. I had decided against the project being given to Reliance Industries as 17 questions were raised by the government officials on their bid. Even Anil Ambani had come to see me. During those days, on the insistence of Atalji, I stepped down from Chief Ministership. However, I had made a noting in the power project file saying that unless the 17 questions were answered, the case should be sent to the CBI, thus putting a cap on their plans to award the project to Reliance’’.
In another revelation, Khurana said that three months before his death Mahajan had called him up saying that he was not happy with the functioning of the party and was being used by Advani. ‘‘He said he was planning to leave the party and wanted to start a Mumbai-specific trust, as he was not able to devote time to his family,’’ Khurana said.
