Oppon asks PM to come clean on AG’s advice to Hindujas

His party colleague S Jaipal Reddy alleged that the then Law Minister P R Kumaramangalam had "permitted Attorney General to give opinion on the controversial Hinduja power project" despite the issue involving the government and a private party.

He said later he had "reasons to believe that Jethmalani did it (allowed AG to give opinion) under pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office. I say this with all the sense of responsibility."

Reddy also alleged that despite the AG wanting the government to institute a CBI inquiry against Jethmalani in the MS Shoes case, he was appointed Law Minister.

Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee associated themselves with the contention of the Congress members.

Responding to members’ remarks against Prime Minister Vajpayee, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan said "he is the most clean and transparent Prime Minister the country has ever seen."

Mahajan said the Opposition had sought a statement from the Prime Minister in the House on the Jethmalani issue and he had acceded to it.

Stating that the Government had nothing to hide on the issue, Mahajan said if the Opposition was still dissatisfied, it could give a proper notice and the government would respond.

Expressing concern over the issue, Scindia said the country was baffled by the "absolute incompetent handling" of the sensitive matter which had snowballed into "an unseemly brawl" between the AG and the sacked Law Minister and also led to a possible confrontation between the Executive and the Judiciary.

The Prime Minister had said nothing on the issue, he said while demanding that the Government should inform Parliament on how confidential papers were leaked.

Scindia said the AG had sought the permission of Kumaramangalam, currently Power Minister, to tender advice to the private party despite the circumstances surrounding a pending court case.

The Government was interested in "hushing up" the matter, he said.

Alleging that the Government was suffering from "total atrophy," Chatterjee said reports indicated that the Enforcement Directorate wanted to implicate Jethmalani as he had now become "a hot potato and inconvenient" for the government.

The government does not take the Opposition into confidence on important issues and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister responds selectively on matters raised by it, he said, adding "the Prime Minister must tell the country what is the position and who is right or wrong".

Jaipal Reddy said both the Law Minister and the Attorney General were appointed by Vajpayee and "the Prime Minister of this country cannot be a holy cow and he has to come clean on this".

He said "unfortunately the conduct of the Prime Minister is far from transparent."

Reddy’s remarks against Vajpayee drew loud protests from treasury benches with Kirit Somaiya demanding that his comments be expunged from the proceedings.

Chandra Shekhar said although he was not a great admirer of Jethmalani but he was constrained to say that justice had not been done to the sacked Law Minister.

The issue had brought "disgrace" to the functioning of the government, he said and demanded a statement on it.