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Copter scam looms over budget session
KV Prasad/TNS

UPA woes pile up The budget session is scheduled from February 21 to May 10 This session is always critical for any government as its Parliamentary managers have to exhibit dexterity in handling issues till the Finance Bill gets approved by the Lok Sabha. The latest allegations of Rs 350-crore kickbacks in the VVIP helicopter deal has given additional ammunition to the Opposition, which is ready to corner the government over corruption charges.

New Delhi, February 17
The VVIP helicopter scandal could not have surfaced at a worse time for the beleaguered United Progressive Alliance Government that is bracing to face the Opposition during the budget session that opens this week.

The budget session is always critical for any government as its Parliamentary managers have to exhibit dexterity in handling issues till the Finance Bill gets approved by the Lok Sabha. The current session is due from February 21 to May 10, with a four-week recess between March and April.

Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left parties have already dug trenches to take on the government and the latest allegations of Rs 350-crore kickbacks in the VVIP helicopter deal with Italy will give the Opposition an added ammo to pillory the UPA-2 that has been mired in a series of corruption charges.

The BJP has already termed this deal as a second Bofors in the making. It also plans to corner the government by attacking Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde for his saffron terror remarks.

These are the two hot button political issues for the UPA leaders besides the regular ones like price rise, railway fare hike, increase in the prices of petrol and gradual dismantling of subsidy on diesel, labour unrest, security situation and outrage over the mutilation of Indian solider bodies on the Line of Control in J&K.

Another festering problem for the UPA is the demand by the Left parties to remove the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien for his alleged involvement in the Suryanelli sex scandal that has come back to haunt the Congress leader from Kerala after 17 years.

The CPM today fired a fresh salvo against Kurien appealing to the Congress leadership to view the matter in a proper perspective and not see it as being raised by it for party-political purpose.

It said surfacing of fresh evidence in the case comes in the background of the Supreme Court orders and stated that Kurien had got benefit of a 2005 ‘flawed’ judgment of the High Court when his petition was not included as one of the accused by the High Court and the Supreme Court.

“A reinvestigation is essential and Kurien should step down from his post of Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, till it is over. The Kerala Government is adopting double standards by not ordering a reinvestigation into the case against Kurien.” The CPM Polit Bureau said in a statement.