In utter disregard to the protests raging across Kerala against the Oommen Chandy Government over two major scams, the Congress-led ruling UDF on Saturday decided not to accept the resignation of Excise Minister K Babu and opined that KM Mani, who had resigned as Finance Minister in November, could return to the Cabinet. Both Babu and Mani are facing the charge of accepting bribe from bar owners.
Within minutes of the UDF taking the decisions, Babu, a close confidant of Chief Minister Chandy, announced his decision to withdraw his resignation. “I am duty-bound to obey the instructions of the Congress party and the UDF. I cannot embarrass the party and the front,” Babu told newsmen in Thiruvananthapuram.
“I am grateful to the UDF for the trust it has put in me. But I am in no haste to return to the Cabinet. An appropriate decision will be taken after discussions in my party,” Mani, chairman of the Kerala Congress (M), third-biggest constituent of the UDF, said.
The ruling front said the situations in which Babu and Mani had resigned did not exist now. The UDF was emboldened to take these decisions in total neglect of the protests raging across the State over the solar and bar bribery scams by a Friday order of the High Court staying for two months a lower court order for registration of FIR against Chandy and his Power Minister Aryadan Muhammad over the charge of taking bribe from a con woman, Saritha S Nair.
Saritha, main perpetrator of the solar scam, had on Wednesday told the judicial commission looking into the scandal that she had given Rs 1.90 crore to Chandy and Rs 40 lakh to Aryadan in 2012 as bribe for getting governmental support for the solar power ventures of her fraudulent company, Team solar Energy Solutions.
The Special Vigilance Court, Thrissur on Thursday ordered registration of FIR against both of them on the basis of a petition over Saritha’s allegation. A High Court bench stayed the order on Friday with stinging strictures against the Vigilance judge, who immediately sought permission for voluntary retirement, prompting Chandy to claim in jubilation, “Truth has prevailed.”
Babu had announced his decision to resign on January 23 minutes after the same Vigilance judge ordered registration of a case against him over the charge that he had taken bribe from the State’s bar owners in 2013 for the favours he promised them. The same HC bench had stayed that order for two months on Thursday. Babu was accused of taking Rs 10 crore bribe from bar owners.
Observers are of the opinion that the withdrawal of Babu’s resignation is unavoidable as far as Chandy is concerned because if the former remains firm in it on what he claimed as “moral grounds” the demand for the Chief Minister’s resignation will be totally justified. “That and nothing else is the logic behind this drama,” opined a senior journalist of a pro-Congress daily.
A meeting of UDF leaders on Saturday decided to intensify its campaign based on the theory that the allegations being leveled against the Government in the solar and bar scams were part of a conspiracy between the CPI(M) and the bar owners, who were in despair after losing their business due to the Government’s new pro-Prohibition liquor policy.
Mani, accused in a Vigilance case over the charge that he had taken Rs 1 crore as bribe from bar owners, had resigned as Finance and law Minister on November 10 following a remark by High Court judge Justice B Kemal Pasha that it was up to him to decide whether he should continue in office when a probe by a Government agency was on against him.
The UDF is justifying its request to Mani to return to the Cabinet - if there are no legal hurdles - by saying that no case seemed to exist against him now as a follow-up probe by Vigilance had found no evidence for the charges against him while legal experts are saying that this is premature as the judiciary is yet to evaluate the Vigilance report.