Karunanidhi charges Vajpayee Govt with double standards on corruption

CHENNAI, DEC 19: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today made a scathing attack on the Vajpayee government by accusing it of ``adop...

CHENNAI, DEC 19: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today made a scathing attack on the Vajpayee government by accusing it of “adopting double standards” while dealing with corruption “by trying to bail out” AIADMK chief Jayalaitha from pending corruption cases against her.

In a statement here, he said, on one hand the Bharatiya Janata Party proclaimed that it would eradicate corruption and on the other it came out openly to rescue Jayalalitha by revising its stand on setting up of three special courts by the State government with an “ulterior motive” to help her.

Referring to Attorney General Soli Sobrajee’s contention in Supreme Court on Thursday that the Tamil Nadu government had no powers to transfer cases to special courts, he said the BJP had not only failed to practice what it preached, but also tried in all possible ways to rescue those facing charges of large-scale corruption while holding high public offices.

Story continues below this ad

He questioned the Centre’s action in revising its stand in the SC afterjustifying in the Madras High Court the State’s action to constitute special courts. It only indicated the Centre would not hesitate to save favoured persons, even if they were found prima facie of indulging in corruption by the courts, he said. Stating that “the real motive of the BJP government is now known to everybody”, Karunanidhi posed a set of questions to be answered by the Union government.

Questioning the Centre’s necessity to assert its power on allocation of corruption cases to special courts at the present juncture, the Chief Minister said it should not be forgotten that the former had been requesting the State government to appoint special judges to try cases investigated by the CBI.

He said such notifications setting up special courts were issued by the State government in 1983, 1995 and 1997 in various cases on the request of the Centre.

“For reasons best known to itself, now the BJP-led coalition wants to meddle with cases filed by the State Police and Directorate of Vigilance andAnti-Corruption (DVAC),” Karunanidhi alleged.