M A I N   N E W S

Samata rejects George’s offer to resign

New Delhi, August 30
Samata Party leader George Fernandes last night offered to resign from the post of Leader of Parliamentary Party after senior leaders sharply attacked the style of functioning of former president Jaya Jaitley and general secretary and spokesman Shambhu Srivastava.

A crisis was averted when the leaders, however, rejected the offer while reiterating their reservations.

At a meeting of party MPs convened hurriedly by the leader of Samata Parliamentary Party George Fernandes last night, the “style of functioning” of former party Chief Jaya Jaitley came in for sharp criticism by MPs considered close to Union Minister Nitish Kumar, party sources said today.

The sources said when the MPs openly criticised Mr Fernandes for allowing Ms Jaitley and party general secretary Shambhu Srivastava to attend parliamentary party meetings and also for the long gaps between the meetings of the parliamentary party, the former Defence Minister said he would take necessary steps.

Incidentally, neither Ms Jaitley nor Mr Srivastava was present at yesterday’s meeting.

At one point of time, the sources said, Mr Fernandes offered to resign from the post of Samata Party leader in Parliament in view of the open criticism against the party’s functioning.

However, the sources pointed out that the MPs did not like to precipitate a crisis and requested Mr Fernandes to continue as their leader in Parliament.

The outburst of the group of MPs assumes significance in the wake of a subtle move within the party to shift power equations, with a major chunk of 14 Samata MPs moving closer to Mr Nitish Kumar, the lone Cabinet minister from the party. PTI

Hindujas to be blacklisted
Bid for Air-India disinvestment
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 30
The Vajpayee government has decided to blacklist the Bofors-tainted Hindujas in their bid for Air-India disinvestment — a move which will scotch rumours of the Hinduja brothers being close to the government.

The decision was taken at a meeting between Union Minister for Law, Justice and Company Affairs Arun Jaitley and Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie at the former’s office on Tuesday, well-placed sources said today.

This decision will be announced after the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) ratifies it at its next meeting which is likely to take place within 10 days. The decision will mean a smooth passage for the Tata-Singapore Airline combine which will then be the only party left in the race for the Air-India bid.

However, sources close to former Union Law Minister Ram Jethmalani, who has given legal advice to the Hindujas in the Bofors case, said the Hindujas were very much aware of the government’s “conspiracy” to blacklist them from the Air-India disinvestment process.

These sources said the Hindujas may even withdraw from their Air-India bid before the government strikes. They said the entire process was like a “joke” and would adversely affect the disinvestment process as parties would not like to be humiliated.

When this correspondent asked Mr Jethmalani whether the Hindujas had been disqualified by the government or whether they had withdrawn their bid so far, he replied in the negative.

Mr Shourie had told the Rajya Sabha in a written answer on July 30 that the government will proceed with the disinvestment of Air-India and the Indian Airlines even if a single price bid offer is made, provided it exceeds the reserve price. Mr Shourie had also stated that the bidder would get disqualified if at any time it is discovered or determined by the government that the bidder is a person who constitutes a threat to the security requirement of the country.

Sources said the government had decided to ‘blacklist’ the Hindjas’ company from the Air-India disinvestment bid as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had “an open-and-shut case” against them in the Bofors gun deal kickbacks case.

According to information available with the CBI, the Hinduja brothers allegedly got kickbacks of 81 million kroners (Rs 24 crore) out of the total of Rs 64 crore worth kickbacks illegally paid by Swedish arms manufacturing company A B Bofors for clinching the deal from the Government of India. The Hinduja brothers have already been chargesheeted by the CBI.

Besides, the CBI has also received the English translation of documents received from Sweden in the Bofors case and these papers are going to be produced before Special Judge M.L. Sahni on September 3.