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Posted on 31 October 2012
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Crony capitalism is running the country: Kejriwal
IAC member Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday accused both Congress and the BJP of being hand-in-gloves with the corporates
Shazia Nigar
New Delhi
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Photo: Dijeshwar Singh
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India Against Corruption (IAC) Arvind Kejrival on Wednesday 31 October accused both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party of being hand-in-gloves with the corporates. Claiming that the prime minister has signed a lot of deals to please the corporates, Kejriwal said, “There is immense pressure on him to act in favour of the corporates and he is doing that.” Speaking at a press conference held at the Constitution Club in New Delhi, he said, “Mukesh Ambani is running the country.”
“Jaipal Reddy was removed from his post as petroleum minister as he refused to allow Reliance to hike the price of the gas levied by Reliance Industries to NTPC,” said Kejriwal. Commenting on the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) contract to extract oil from KG Basin, he claimed that according to an agreement with the government in 2009, RIL are supposed to sell gas at $4.2 per mmBtu till 31 March 2014. RIL unfairly demanded that they be allowed to increase the price to $14.2 per mmBtu. Since Jaipal Reddy resisted this, he was removed from his post, said Kejriwal.
Playing the Nira Radia tapes at the press conference, he accused the Congress of having sold out to the BJP. He backed this up with a taped conversation where he claimed that Ranjan Bhattacharya (AB Vajpayee’s foster son-in-law) in a conversation with Radia says that Mukesh Ambani told him “Congress to ab apni dukaan hai.”
Lawyer and member of IAC Prashant Bhushan said, “Crony capitalists are greasing the palms of politicians. Mani Shankar Aiyar and Jaipal Reddy are examples of all those who tried to resist this corruption and were shifted out.”
Addressing his supporters, Kejriwal said “If you are fine with an unfair hike in your electricity bills then it is okay. But you realise that this is not right then we as a country have to resist this. Start asking questions. File RTI after RTI.”
The press conference was interrupted when an audience member who said “he had no political affiliations, but had a right to seek answers as a citizen” asked a few questions to Kejriwal. However, not only did IAC members prevent him from talking but he was also prevented from questioning by media persons who claimed that he was interrupting the session. Kejriwal's pleas to allow the man to ask questions fell on deaf ears. After the man was made to leave the venue Kejriwal said, “This is not shocking for us. We were expecting such things to happen after we have raised questions about Salman Khurshid and Robert Vadra. But we will not bow down to the pressure.”
shazia@tehelka.com
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