Steps against corruption thanks to Supreme Court: Advani

NEW DELHI - Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Monday said the Supreme Court was the “principal determinant” in “some action” taken by the government in corruption cases and called 2010 “a year of stinking scams”.

He also hoped the apex court would play a decisive role in the return of the country’s wealth stashed away in foreign tax havens.

In the latest post on his blog, Advani says: “If for several months now the only word heard and reverberating in every nook and corner of the country is corruption, the credit for this goes to three constitutional authorities, the Supreme Court, the parliament and the Comptroller and Auditor General.”

He pointed out that on Oct 29, a Supreme Court Bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly, hearing a writ petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation seeking action on the basis of the draft report submitted by the CAG, pulled up the central government for the slow progress of investigations into the 2G spectrum scam.

He said the final report placed in parliament in November assessed the loss at a presumptive Rs.1.76 lakh crore.

Advani said the Supreme Court Nov 18 asked the prime minister to file an affidavit when hearing a petition filed by Janata Party president Subramaniam Swamy that he had written to Manmohan Singh in November 2008 seeking permission to prosecute former communications minister A. Raja.

“The chief justice then asked the PM to file an affidavit in that regard in court,” Advani said.

Advani said that on the first day of the parliament’s winter session, the opposition parties and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj sought to raise the 2G spectrum scam, the Commonwealth Games scam and the Adarsh housing society scam related to defence land but she “was shouted down by the Congress”.

He said the entire opposition and some among the government’s allies then came to the conclusion that parliament could settle down to normal business only if the government agreed to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe these scams.

Advani said towards the end of the winter session, a senior minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, not belonging to the Congress, told him that both the prime minister and finance minister had conveyed that they were ready for a JPC.

“A ministerial meeting to announce this was actually convened, but called off at the last moment,” he said.

“The JPC has not been set up; but A. Raja has been removed, the Maharashtra CM (chief minister) changed, and Suresh Kalmadi and his colleagues subjected to CBI raids. The loot has not been recovered yet, but if some action has started, the principal determinant has been the Supreme Court. I hope in a matter linked up with this problem of corruption the Supreme Court will once again play a decisive role,” he said.

He said that numerous scams that had surfaced in 2010, making it “a year of stinking scams”.

Advani also said that a writ petition filed by some eminent citizens is pending before the Supreme Court that aims at forcing the government to bring back Indias wealth stashed away in tax havens overseas.

The BJP leader said that India was among 14 of 140 signatory countries that have failed to ratify a UN convention against corruption and sought a reply from the prime minister on the issue.