BOMBAY: Union Minister for Environment and Forests Rajesh Pilot has called upon Congressmen to “save the country from criminal forces” instead of striving to save the party and hold on to power by compromising with “mafia dons in the guise of godmen.”
Addressing a public meeting on “Criminalization of Politics” organized by the National Integration Association here, Mr. Pilot vowed to “Keep fighting” for establishing the rule of law in the country and asserted that he was prepared to make any sacrifice to ensure that the nation was not weakened.
“My fight is for principles and have no personal axe to grind,” he said The former Internal Security Minister said he had several times cautioned Prime Minister, V. Narasimha Rao about the deals being brokered by Godman Chandraswami, such as award of Government contracts, which were tarnishing the image of the ruling Congress.
The nation will break up if there is one law for the common man and another law for the people in power and their patronizes,” Pilot warmed adding “Chandraswamis are ruling the roost in our democracy and even act as brokers to allot portfolios in the Union Cabinet”
Pilot recalled that the late Congress president Rajiv Gandhi had given a call for ‘throwing out power brokers” and had even initiated measures to weed out middlemen in the corridors of power. Ridiculing the spiritual claims of Chandraswami, Pilot said an NRI had faxed him the birth certificate of a child fathered by the godman in New York. Chandraswami should not be spared just because he claimed to have connections with 132 heads of State in the world. If Mr. Chandraswami could have links with Babloo Srivastay, the nation must take the godman’s influence in top echelons of Government very seriously, he said.
The Vohra Committee was appointed this suggestion to the Prime Minister, Pilot said, adding it was high time the full report was tabled before people.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 27, 1995
