The agitation by the Congress to put the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the dock in connection with the UAE consulate-linked gold smuggling case is set to resonate in the Parliament.
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala told The Hindu that Congress MPs from Kerala would move an adjournment motion in the House to discuss the various national security implications of the offence. The Lok Sabha (LS) is convening on Monday. The MPs will table the motion at the earliest date.
Overlapping inquiries by Central agencies into the smuggling of gold in air freight addressed to foreign officials at the UAE consulate here had opened a Pandora's box of wrongdoing by the State government, he said.
The probe blew the lid of the instances of protocol violation and illegal acceptance of foreign aid by Higher Education Minister K.T. Jaleel.
It exposed the corruption in the UAE Red Crescent-Life Mission deal in which the son of a Cabinet Minister and gold smuggling case accused are implicated. Off late, a drug bust in Karnataka led enforcers to the doorstep of the close kin of a top CPI(M) leader. A person charged in the gold smuggling case is also a suspect in the drug bust.
Mr. Chennithala said the government had lost its right to continue in office. CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran appeared to have lost his voice in the face of the allegations and set off on a pilgrimage, he said. KPCC Mullappally Ramachandran said he had conferred with the MPs in the matter.
BJP to follow suit
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also set to raise the issue in Parliament. A party official said BJP Karnataka State president Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP from Dakshina Kannada constituency, would highlight the matter in the Lok Sabha.
He said the BJP parliamentary party leadership was not opposed to a detailed national debate on the accusations of repeated protocol violation, illegal acceptance of foreign aid, abatement of gold smuggling and drug links of kin of CPI(M) leaders.
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) has dug its heels in on the issue of support to Mr. Jaleel. Law Minister A.K. Balan and Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran said the CPI(M) State secretariat had rejected the demand for Mr. Jaleel’s ouster and termed it politicking ahead of the local body polls.
