Gujarat govt refutes Arvind Kejriwal’s charges

The Gujarat government today refuted Aam Admi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal‘s charge that it favoured certain industrial groups in the state.

“The charges levelled by Kejriwal are baseless and aimed at maligning the reputation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,” government spokesperson and Minister of State for Energy, Saurabh Patel said.

“The charge that the state government favoured Adani group while purchasing power is not true. Power was purchased from the Adani Group after inviting bids and Adani was the lowest bidder,” Patel said.

Regarding the land given to the Adanis, Patel said, “the government has not given any farm land to Adanis. The land which was given in Kutch was wasteland. The charge that the land was given at Re 1 is false as it was given on a lease for 30 years on BOT basis and every year the state government gets rent on it”.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal had alleged in New Delhi that Modi favoured Gujarat-based business house Adani Group on power purchase and land allotment besides giving gas fields worth Rs 20,000 crore to private companies for “free”.

On the gas deal with a foreign firm GeoGlobal Resourcing, Patel said, “GSPC (Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation) had informed the Director General, Hydrocarbons in 2010 that the deal with GeoGlobal was cancelled and they did not have 10 per cent participating interest anymore in the oil exploration of the Krishna Godavari Basin Deendayal Block.”

“As there was no commercial production so far from KG-OSN-2001/3 gas block, there was no question of giving any benefits to that company,” Patel said.

About allotment of plots to MPs and MLAs in Gandhinagar, Patel said, “the policy of allotment of plots to MPs and MLAs was initiated by the earlier Congress governments and it was discontinued by the Modi government five years back.”

Criminals, Crorepatis & Non-Graduates; It’s Indian Politics

 

Politics pays really well, much more than any other profession as our parliament and state assemblies have become hubs of crorepatis, just as all but three members of the new Goa assembly are millionaires. Politics works as an asylum for criminals that half of the newly elected MLAs in UP have declared criminal cases against them. Politics is a profession of high pay and absolute job security where education is not the primary criterion of eligibility and so, 45 percent of the newly-elected in Punjab Vidhan Sabha are non-graduates.

The new crorepati list from the recently held assembly elections in 5 states shows the fact that the not-so-rich are getting marginalized in Indian politics and in the electoral process. While 101 out of 117 MLAs in the Punjab Assembly are crorepatis, 37 out of 40 elected candidates in the Goan assembly have declared assets worth more than 1 Core. According to the data published by Association for Democratic Reforms, an NGO working towards strengthening governance and democracy in the country; narrates a story quite different than we are used to. Contrary to the popular belief, it’s not people with genuine social conscience, but with deep pockets the political parties prefer to give the tickets to contest. And as a matter of fact, it’s these financially well off candidates stand a good chance to win the constituencies than people with real political zeal but less economical backup.

 

Related articles

• 35 % of elected MLAs face criminal cases (thehindu.com)
• The Crorepati Club of Indian Politicians Grows (ktrmurali.wordpress.com)
• In Indian Politics, Crime Pays (india.blogs.nytimes.com)