Poor get poorer
As always, given the inequities built into the global economic system, the poorest people in the world have been the…
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
New Delhi, 30 September
The conviction of RJD president and ex-Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad in a 17-year-old multi-crore fodder scam case by a special CBI court in Ranchi today generated intense political heat in the national Capital as the development might have a crucial bearing on the alliances and results in Bihar in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP hailed the court’s decision, describing it as “judgment day” for Bihar. The party also slammed the Congress for allegedly trying to shield Mr Prasad.
“It&’s not only a judgment for Bihar, it is a justice day for Bihar…and the country against corrupt politics,” the BJP general secretary, Mr Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said.
Describing the verdict as a “defining” moment, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley hit out at the Congress-led UPA government for allegedly trying to shield Mr Prasad by bringing the controversial Ordinance meant to protect convicted lawmakers from immediate disqualification.
“The Ordinance could not be approved for reasons which are well known. Today we have all understood why this Ordinance was brought. Its only object was to help a loyal UPA ally who was likely to be convicted. In the end justice has prevailed,” Mr Jaitley alleged.
The fate of the Ordinance, envisaged to overturn the 10 July Supreme Court decision, now appears to be sealed after the Congress vice president, Mr Rahul Gandhi, trashed it as “complete nonsense which should be torn up and thrown away” in a public outburst last Friday.
Apart from Mr Prasad and other leaders and bureaucrats, the former Bihar CM Mr Jagannath Mishra was also convicted in the fodder scam case by the Ranchi court.
Mr Rudy alleged both the ex-CMs convicted “owed allegiance to Congress…one directly to the Congress (Jagannath) and the other as a part of the UPA in the previous government and at present too”.
The Congress reacted cautiously to the court’s verdict against Lalu, maintaining that the “law will take its own course”.
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