HVK Archives: Home minister upset with govt action in Rao case
Home minister upset with govt action in Rao case - The Pioneer
Posted By HVK Editor (hvk@hindunet.org)
Tue, 1 Oct 1996 14:08:18 -0500 (CDT)
Home minister upset with govt action in Rao case
Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
Home Minister Inderjit Gupta has taken grave
exception to the move by Delhi Police Commissioner
Nikhil Kumar thanks to which former Congress
president P V Narasimha Rao got a reprieve in the
Lakhubhai Pathak case.
Nikhil Kumar had, on behalf of the Delhi police,
filed a special leave petition affirming the
inability of the Delhi police force to provide,
within the courthouse, the kind of security Rao is
entitled to get as befits his 'Z' category listing.
This petition resulted in Rao being reprieved from
having to personally attend hearings in the Pathak
case.
A joint secretary in the federal home ministry
pointed out to this correspondent that Gupta was away
in Uttar Pradesh when the Prime Minister's Office
directed the Delhi police commissioner to move the
special leave petition in the apex court. This move
bypassed the home ministry, which technically
controls the police department.
Gupta is understood to have conveyed his displeasure
over the move to Prime Minister Deve Gowda, and
expressed his unhappiness over the manner in which
Deve Gowda had 'rescued' Rao.
Communist Party of India general secretary A B
Bardhan also conveyed his party's unhappiness over
the move to Deve Gowda, and threatened that if the
Delhi police is used to protect Rao from making
personal appearances in court, then the CPI would be
forced to rethink its decision to be part of the
United Front government at the Centre.
Significantly, federal agriculture minister
Chaturanan Mishra, also of the CPI, had also
cautioned Deve Gowda to refrain from pressurising
investigating agencies into helping Narasimha Rao.
The CPI has, in the wake of Nikhil Kumar's special
leave petition to the apex court, now summoned its
national executive to meet next week to discuss the
issue.
Interestingly, the CPI-M is also reportedly unhappy
with Deve Gowda on the same issue, and party general
secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet has reportedly sent
a letter to Deve Gowda expressing his party's
disillusionment with the developments.
Surjeet is understood to have said in his letter that
even the Tamil Maanila Congress and the Telugu Desam
Party, both constituents of the UF government, are
unhappy with the PM's initiatives in the Rao case,
and demanded that the UF steering committee be
summoned for a meeting to discuss the issue and
decide on a future course of action.
Thus, with dissatisfaction spreading through the
various constituents of the ruling government, it
would appear that Deve Gowda's attempt to protect
Narasimha Rao could have consequences greater than he
had anticipated.
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