Balmuchu hapless in defence

Jharkhand Congress MP and State party president Pradeep Balmuchu assumed the mien and argument of a Coal Minister to defend the UPA Government and Union Minister Subodh Kant over controversial coal block allotments and subsequent reports of the CAG. He did it quite poorly though.

Balmuchu, who is said to be lobbying for the Coal Ministry, defended the UPA and Sahay from a factually erroneous premise at a Press conference on Friday. “The BJP has stalled the Parliament over the CAG report on coal block allotments…and the authenticity of the report is still to be verified. The BJP’s decision to stall Parliament is under question because all such recommendations for coal block allotments were made by non-Congress and BJP-led State Governments. The Coal Ministry merely approved these recommendations,” Balmuchu said.

While BJP sought to force Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign, Balmuchu demanded that CMs of BJP-ruled States resign on moral grounds for making coal block recommendations to companies, on the basis of which the Ministry allotted them.

“The screening committee rarely turns down recommendations made by State Governments. BJP-ruled States made maximum recommendations. The Central Government allocated all these coal blocks on auction basis. It was done in the economic interest of the country since most allocations were for power, steel and cement. A total of 57 blocks were allocated under this process,” he claimed.

Questioning the CAG report and its estimated Rs 1.86-lakh crore loss to the exchequer out of such allotments, Balmuchu was at his best with arithmetic and political fallacy.

“Where does the question of loss come? Out of 57 coal blocks, exploration of only one block has been started. The BJP does not want to discuss these things in Parliament. If they have facts, they must place it before the country,” he said. 

What Balmuchu said was truth in inverted form, or he probably went horribly wrong in understanding an auction and recommendation. Out of 70 coal blocks allotted during 2006 and 2009, the Centre did not follow process in 57 cases. The BJP has been alleging that the Centre allotted blocks on recommendation basis against the advice of the Union Law Ministry.

To prickly posers from mediapersons about Coalgate, Balmuchu begged off and summed up, saying he relied on the best of his information. He claimed a clean chit for his party and the Government, which have both been passing through one of their worst political phases.

However, he then had to defend his political rival Sahay, who is now at the centre of the controversy, for keeping the PM and his office in the dark while writing a letter of recommendation for coal blocks to SKS Ispat & Power, where his younger brother Sudhir is a stakeholder.

“The Delhi High Court has already disposed of this matter. It gave a clean chit to Sahay over the allegation that he had connections with SKS Ispat. Recommending any company is not wrong because he is a public representative. It can’t be proved that the said company got coal block just because of the Minister’s recommendation. I am not aware whether he or his brother has any connection with the company.”

Meanwhile, Sahay, in Delhi, accepted that Sudhir was honorary executive director of the company, a fact which he had been denying. Both Sahay and Balmuchu underwent a rigorous media grilling, causing deep discomfiture. But there may be a silver lining in it for Balmuchu — his political bête noir landing in a crisis.

HC orders CBI probe against 3 Koda ex-aides

The Jharkhand High Court on Monday ordered CBI probe of disproportionate property case against MLA Bandhu Tirkey and two former MLAs Dulal Bhuiyan and Bhanu Pratap Shahi who are former Cabinet colleagues of former Chief Minister Madhu Koda.

In an order passed by the High Court, it asked the CBI to hold a complete, speedy, effective, comprehensive and complete investigation in the matter.

The Court also directed CBI to investigate either offences, and the role of State Government officials, persons and their private and government secretaries who are alleged to have a role in this corruption.

Nevertheless, AJSU party MLA and Minister in the present Government Chandra Prakash Chaudhary got a reprieve after the Income Tax Department and the State Vigilance Bureau in an affidavit submitted before the court said that no proof of disproportionate property was found against him.

The HC ordered it while hearing a supplementary petition filed by Durga Oraon who had sought HC for CBI probe against them. In 2008, Oraon had filed a PIL against Koda and his Cabinet colleagues and accused them of amassing property beyond their known sources of income.

In subsequent hearing of the matter, the case was referred to the CBI for investigation and different probe agencies had conducted nationwide raids against on many different occasions.

But DA cases related with Tirkey, Bhuiyan and Shahi were continued to be investigated by Vigilance Bureau which was challenged by the petitioner on the ground that such cases should be investigated by the CBI.

Hearing the case on August 2, the High Court had directed Income Tax and Vigilance Bureau to submit a detail report whether evidences against them exist or not. The Court had also directed IT Department to handover all related probe related documents to the CBI.

Nevertheless, the CBI investigating medicine and NRHM scam has submitted charge sheet against Shahi but the petitioner contended that DA case against him should handed over to the CBI. Shahi was Health Minister during the regime of Koda.

“It is a landmark decision by the Court. The Court has specifically asked CBI for an extensive and complete investigation of cases against them. We had demanded CBI probe against all former colleagues of Koda. But IT and Vigilance Bureau found no proof against them,” lawyer Rajiv Kumar said. The petitioner sought CBI inquiry on the ground of the affidavit submitted by the IT Department in 2010 where it accepted that there existed enough evidences to charge them under provisions of the DA case.

While a minister of Land Reform and Revenue Bhuiyan allegedly amassed crores of property and brought a resort in Singhbhum district. Tirkey who was HRD Minister in Koda government was accused for purchasing a flat at Basant Bihar in New Delhi and land in other parts of Jharkhand.     

Notably, including Koda, three of his former cabinet colleagues Ainosh Ekka, Harinarayan Roy and Kamlesh Singh, have been facing CBI probe in DA related cases. The court decision has swollen the number.

A bandh for the people

It was a bandh with a difference. On Thursday, Jharkhand was finally witness to a shutdown to which the masses responded spontaneously. The Opposition cannon’s boom would have jangled the nerves of the Congress-led UPA Government.

The NDA Opposition at the Centre, Left parties and others had called for the countrywide shutdown against FDI in retail, the coal blocks scam and exorbitant hike in prices of petroleum products.

In Ranchi, life was paralysed as shops stayed closed till the evening. The bandh was supported by trade body FJCCI against introduction of FDI in retail and price hike in petroleum products.

Railway services and other public transport was the worst-affected as protesters blocked many trains. Passengers remained stranded at stations and railway sources said a good numbers of trains ran late.

Hundreds of workers of the BJP, Left and others brought out rallies and were widely supported by the people. Police sources said around 500 agitators were arrested but released by evening.

JVM chief Babulal Marandi, along with party leader Pradeep Yadav and workers, joined a protest march against FDI and petrol price hike. The RJD, though, remained evasive in joining the Opposition’s chorus but extended moral support to the truckers’ association asking the Centre to review the recent price hike.

The Left — known for its ideological aversion in supporting any bandh given by the NDA or the BJP — for once did not mind mixing their party flags with that of the BJP on Thursday. The Samajwadi Party, which till a few days ago was angling for the Congress, jumped on to the Opposition’s bandwagon in Jharkhand too.

Demanding an immediate rollback, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) and Jharkhand Truckers’ Association too joined the shutdown brigade, though they declined that their protest had anything to do with the NDA-sponsored bandh.

State BJP spokesperson Pradeep Sinha said, “Today’s bandh is a clear message for the Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that UPA-II has lost its mandate. It was a massive and spontaneous bandh supported by the people.”

He added, “Singh is running one of the most unpopular and corrupt Governments. A silent PM and an evasive UPA are not the answer to the burning issues faced by the country.”

The BJP will carry forward the agitation as the party has decided to submit a memorandum to the Governor on Saturday to seek the resignation of the PM and to demand total scrapping of the FDI entry move, along with rollback of the recent price hike.

FDI and petrol prices remained the common tune of the Opposition, though the BJP highlighted Coalgate too.

At least one senior State Congress leader privately accepted that the sweeping shutdown may have ramifications on Central politics. “One can’t ignore such public support or term it a stage-managed affair. FDI may be the part of the larger scheme of the Centre to introduce reform and liberalisation in the retail market but the Centre chose a wrong time for a right thing,” the leader said. 

“The Union Government was forced to take a strong decision to introduce rationing of LPG cylinders and others but again, the timing was bad,” he added. The Congress leader pointed out that his worries lay beyond the baffling arithmetic of the floor — it was a wider credibility deficit that would hurt in the final lap to the general elections.

However, the chief interest of the seasoned protesters remained focused on what Delhi was chattering about — a Third Front in the making?

JFDC skips bidding in hush-hush deal

The intent of the Jharkhand Forest Development Corporation (JFDC) to purchase solar-powered waterpumps, lights and lamps worth Rs 9.5 crore from Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (JREDA) without adhering to the bidding process has left many baffled and believing that it is another scam is in the making.

The meeting of the JFDC board on Friday gave it approval to the purchase. The Pioneer is in possession of a copy of the agenda of the meeting, which does not suggest any prior official deliberations and process under which JREDA was nominated as supplier.

Under the Companies Act, it is mandatory to provide copy of the agenda to the members at least a week before. But here, the copy was circulated barely 12 hours before the meeting, giving credence to the doubt, according to sources.

Under the proposal (item no. 28/10), JFDC proposes to establish solar-powered waterpumps with the help of JREDA in selected 60 villages of Jharkhand at an estimated cost of Rs 3.67 crore.

Under item no. 28/12, JFDC wishes to install 180 solar-powered streetlights in selected 60 villages in Jharkhand at an estimated Rs 0.09 crore.

Under the next item, JFDC proposes to purchase 80,000 solar-powered lanterns for each family involved in collecting kendu leaves with the help of JREDA. Total cost involves is Rs 6.08 crore. Each lantern under the proposal will cost Rs 850.

All JFDC managing director BR Rallan could say in defence of the decision was that JREDA would supply the equipment at subsidised cost.

JFDC being a semi-Government organisation, does not require Cabinet approval or prior permission from the Government. But the financial bylaw of the corporation puts certain riders — bidding first, nominations later.

A top official of the finance department reiterated the point, saying, “Since JFDC is a semi-governmental organisation, mobilising its own resources may not require prior permission for such purchase.  But then, the Supreme Court, in one of its decisions, has categorically said that purchase on the nomination basis should be done in rare cases. Bidding process is the thumb rule.”

These rare situations for purchase under nomination basis are if the said company is either sole custodian of that particular product or sole manufacturer; or if the Government is running short of time to float a tender.

JREDA might have assured supply on subsidised price but it is not the manufacturer of solar lamps and pumps. “After all, JREDA will outsource the job to another party. You can’t rule out the possibility of other State-run or private manufacturing units offering you products at cheap rate if bidding process is done,” another senior official pointed out.

Sources in JFDC hinted that Rallan seems to have particular interest in this purchase and JREDA is his personal choice as prospective supplier. “Nothing was discussed in the previous board meeting. The proposal was mooted and piloted by the managing director,” said a senior official of JFDC.

Court orders prod CBI to rejuvenate efforts

After a double whammy from the Supreme Court on the missing children case a few weeks ago, the crime bureau of the CBI has expedited investigation in the case of Anup Kispotta aka Annu (4), and Ranjit Kispotta aka Guddu (8), who disapppeared on September 28, 2010, from Namkum in Ranchi.

Earlier, the agency had filed a review petition against the decision of the Jharkhand High Court, which asked the CBI not only to investigate the Kispotta case but also all such unsolved cases of missing children in Jharkhand.

The apex court is yet to pass instructions over the operative portion of the CBI plea against the high court’s direction. The CBI is worried that if the Supreme Court upholds the high court decision, it will open a Pandora’s box.

There are a total of 297 such unsolved missing children cases in police records. Jharkhand is known as a hub of child trafficking and the CBI will be burdened with endless number of cases if the Supreme Court disagrees with its appeal.

The Jharkhand High Court, on October 18 last year, had directed the agency during hearing of a PIL filed by Susanna Kispotta, who sought the court’s intervention to trace his two nephews.

A Bench of Justice DK Jain of the Supreme Court chided the CBI and said the agency’s attitude was astonishing. In the past two years, this was going to be the third case of missing children that the high court had handed over to the Central investigating agency on aggrieved parents’ pleas. The two other cases are that of Akash Raj and his two friends — Shashank Shekhar and Pawan Soni — who went missing from Gumla since March 30, 2008 and one from Bano, Simdega.

CBI sources in Ranchi said that all these cases are being investigated by a team of eight officials headed by DSP BK Singh. More than three hundred pamphlets and handbills have been distributed and pasted across Ranchi and others. The Anu and Guddu missing case is in the initial phase. But the CBI has ruled out it the case of abduction for ransom or personal feud.

“Their parents are very poor. They have not received any ransom call. These boys have certainly not been murdered. We suspect that they might have been allured or lifted by gangs involved in human trafficking. We are investigating different aspects of the case. Meanwhile, we have pamphlets at all public places to seek information,” a top CBI official said. In the Raj-Sekhar-Soni case the CBI has discovered human bones which have been sent for the DNA test in Hyderabad. So far, the CBI has examined 40 people and rounded-up nine suspects in these cases.

But the CBI has its own sets of concerns. These cases are quite old. And by the time the CBI was asked to investigate vital links were missing and the police have already botched-up the case.

CBI sources claimed that the case despite being critical and confusing in nature the investigation will reach to a logical conclusion. But the CBI blamed the agency is paying penalty of lethargic state police. Primarily, this is the duty of the police. Premier agencies should not be involved in such cases.

Crime bureau branch of the CBI in Ranchi having a total of 44 staffs, has investigating 17 important cases right from Madhu Koda scam to Rajya Sabha horse trading case. Missing children case has just been added into.

Jharkhand Cong woes to hobble Rahul on 3rd visit

Rahul Gandhi, Jharkhand Congress pleads sincere attention for an urgent housekeeping. The party is inching to a ‘cold and tearful termination’ in Jharkhand.

Gandhi twice visited Jharkhand in 2009 and 2010 to recruit young members to revive the sagging prospects of the party and its students’ wing NSUI. He had instructed immediate membership drive, saying subaltern voices and faces must get equal representation.

It will be his third visit. But his previous visits seduced many into promoting their family, sons and brothers in organizational and electoral politics. Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, probably remained the most blatant and sorry example of this when he fielded his younger brother Sunil Sahay in Hatia Assembly by-election despite doctoral pulses from ground suggesting his total rout. Rather than repenting and repairing that mistake, the warring group resorted to a reprisal act by turning violent in one such review meeting at party headquarters, few months back.

The drive netted less members and courted more controversies - membership list forged it was blamed. Only the number of leaders has swelled, not workers, and far and few left in a forced hibernation. And its staunch supporters are wheezing on expired emotion, too unattached and anaemic even to talk about the party today.

Old timers like Arun Pandey who took retirement from active politics are painfully nostalgic about lost old tradition of the Congress: part-timers replaced by full timers. It gets worse than that funereal lament.

Organisational elections are an unscheduled affair and a full-time elected president is an old demand. Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu overstayed beyond his tenure otherwise he had to be replaced after 2008 state organizational election. Twice in the past Balmuchu pretentiously resigned from his post and every time the slumbering central Congress leadership asked him to continue as an ad hock that forced many to question whether Jharkhand Congress really lacks in talent.

Balmuchu would parry to answer whether he is the only talented person left to run the party.

But many in the Congress feel that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her general secretary son Rahul Gandhi are serious about Jharkhand. Though, detailed itinerary of Gandhi, media was given to understand, a mere gossip job - meeting elected panchayat representatives, party workers, functionaries etc. Some of the district and block presidents will be felicitated and appreciated for their good performance on this occasion for all that they have not done.

However, top party sources confided that Rahul is on a mission in Jharkhand to help her mother who plans to rejig her team by October to face the 2014 general election.

Hopefully, Rahul will recommend somebody equally talented for the State president post. But Rahul’s efforts in Hindi-speaking States have always been a sorry excursion. Bihar had bemoaned him, Uttar Pradesh recently rasped him and Jharkhand unit has enough troubles to jangle him. Jharkhand unit is a deeply divided house, “where everybody is loyal to somebody,” observed a party senior.  

The Congress actually severed ties with party tradition and the masses that matter. It was probably after the end of popular era of Satyadev Narayan Tiwari and Jagganath Prasad Chaudhary who had called a many public stirring and kept the party organizationally robust and mobile.

The pity for the Congress is which its spokesperson Sailesh Sinha would often deny strongly. “Our mass base helped to survive …Our shares in vote have leaped into double digit,” he said.

But the Congress has never been a credible Opposition hardly summoning any mass agitation these years. Such a serial electoral defeats right from Jamshedpur to Hatia, more than a dozen high power committees including of KN Jha committee failed to stir party in right direction. That’s how lonely your party’s Jharkhand cortege is, Mr Gandhi.

Rahul assimilates Jharkhand Cong undercurrents

It happened when everyone was jostling for a photo opportunity with Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi in Ranchi. A Congress worker quietly passed him a tiny paper, which Rahul glanced at hurriedly and dropped into his pocket.

The Congress scion has been chased with petitions galore, seeking personal and political grants, but this particular petitioner wanted him to stop ad hocism and end rehabilitation of non-performers in the State unit.

The plea is more urgent than a single voice - it is the need of the hour for the disintegrating State Congress. And the petitioner merely threw the rulebook at Rahul on the issue of rehabilitation.

Top party sources confided that Gandhi, who quietly launched Mission 2014, has dropped thick hints of bringing new and dynamic faces into the party organisation here. Under the scheme, Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu— continuing as State president—could be relieved and is likely to be rehabilitated in the Central body.  Balmuchu, long overstaying his tenure, has been continuing under an ad hoc arrangement from 2008, with two subsequent extensions.

Sonia Gandhi, party sources confided, is learnt to be keen on a team rejig by the end October. The organisational reshuffle is likely to coincide with the proposed change in the Central Cabinet, which may come as a farewell event for Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, who has courted the displeasure of the Gandhis over Coalgate. During his two-day visit, Rahul met several State leaders for feedbacks over the proposed party restructuring. The most urgent and common demand remained the appointment of a new president.

Balmuchu, though, did not give credence to any such widely-discussed latent move of Rahul’s Jharkhand visit, saying, “Rahulji never visits with such mandate. I will continue till the Central leadership wishes.”

But party insiders had a different say. “He sought our views and assured us that he would look into this matter. We were given to believe that he was serious about the affairs of the State party and demand for a new president,” said a senior party leader.

Sources said Rahul wants to test the Uttar Pradesh model in Jharkhand. He had divided Uttar Pradesh in various divisions from organisational point of view and made subsequent appointment of divisional in-charges, who would be parallel to the State head.

The move may work well to frustrate the tendency of too much centralisation of power and as a measure to stop infighting and factionalism.

For instance, Congress Jamshedpur (West) MLA Banna Gupta told Rahul candidly that leaders and workers have no choice to remain neutral in a faction-ridden State Congress. They have to identify either with the Balmuchu faction or that of the Sahays.

Even Balmuchu is aware of a growing sense of discomfort in a section of party leaders. Blessed by Oscar Fernandes at the Centre, he not only managed extension for him but mercilessly punctured the move of his desperate detractors.

Rahul has returned with enough feedbacks about State organisation. A couple of top leaders are likely to be summoned to Delhi within a couple of weeks. And when he does report to his mother about Jharkhand affairs, the memo of that unknown party worker will help him make the right points.

Rahul sounded out Soren on FDI

It was a midnight tryst of a different kind. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi reportedly met JMM chief Shibu Soren on Tuesday midnight during his Ranchi visit, in a bid to seek endorsement of fringe players over foreign direct investment (FDI) and coal block allotment controversy.

Soren denied having any such meeting with Congress scion, but insiders claimed that it did take place and that the JMM chief assured support to the UPA Government.

The Centre has been passing through a tumultuous phase, following stiff opposition on the issues from the NDA and an angered withdrawal of Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee. All this has stirred up prospects of an early election.

Sources said that as Rahul wished a one-to-one meeting with the JMM chief, Soren Jr — Deputy Chief Minister in the BJP-led Government Hemant — was kept out of the discourse.

Shibu Soren explained his position to Rahul over FDI and said that ideologically, his party would oppose entry of FDI in the domestic market but politically, he would continue to remain in the UPA fold.

He made it clear that the JMM would back the UPA Government if it came to a floor test. Rahul reportedly told Soren that the Congress considers JMM a “valued and trusted ally”.

When Soren spoke to The Pioneer on Sunday, he displayed a similar political demeanour, striding adroitly over the FDI issue, firmly smothering murmurs of an impending mid-term election and the ‘third front’ formation.

“I have not gone into the details of FDI so far. But ideologically, I am opposed to such a move. It will harm Indian farmers and retailers. The decision should be taken keeping the larger public interest in mind,” Soren told The Pioneer.

Replying to whether his ideological opposition over FDI would reflect his political decision when it comes to opposing the UPA Government during floor testing, he said, “I am not in the favour of pulling out of the Government. Mid-term elections are not good for the country.”

In the immediate, Soren appeared to hint, he would be happier to be in the UPA boat — despite the choppy waters and its day-to-day struggle for survival. He seemed to issue a subtle public message that he would continue his romance with the UPA at the Centre and keep flirting with the NDA in Jharkhand. They are contrary political perceptions, which Soren justifies with baffling logic and actions.

At this stage, Soren is quick to snub those who are clamouring over the prospect of a third front at the Centre, saying it’s a “pani me bulbula” (bubble) which would hardly graduate beyond political gossip and column inches. “What is the third front that collapses soon after its formation? I don’t think there is any scope for a third front. It can’t be a credible alternative.”

Most of the volleys over the coal block scam were met with a flat bat, often not with conviction but always with an alibi. Soren mostly parried comments over the probable political fallout of the ongoing investigation into the coal block allotment scam. “The probe is going on,” was all he would say.

The JMM chief served Union Coal Minister in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government till he was forced to resign in 2006. But then, Soren has always supported the PM and the UPA during crises. He even lost his job as CM of Jharkhand in 2010, when an irked BJP withdrew its support after he voted in the favour of UPA during a cut motion.

Any apprehension Soren may feel about his own political future in the wake of ongoing probe of coal blocks cannot be ruled out and the Congress is well-versed in making a good deal of it. On that Tuesday night too, Rahul seems to have convinced Soren that FDI is a good idea.