5.12.12

Kejriwal aims at NaMo


Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan have targeted Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, accusing him of giving away thousands of crores in land, gas and coal blocks to private companies at throwaway prices.
In their sixth “expose’’, Kejriwal and Bhushan said Modi had favoured Gujarat based business house Adani Group on power purchase and land allotment besides giving gas fields worth Rs 20,000 crore to private companies — Jubilant Energy and Geo Global — for “free”, adding that their disclosures were evidence that the rivalry between Congress and BJP was a pretense and that the two parties were actually “business partners’’ in private.
Questioning Modi’s credentials as ‘vikas purush’ and claims about his honesty, the duo levelled a series of charges against the CM, targeting him for allegedly allowing Adanis to “walk away” with coal blocks without supplying power at cheap rates as per agreement.
They also alleged that Modi “gifted’’ away 20% stake of 20 billion worth of gas blocks acquired by state-owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) in the KG basin to Geo Global and Jubilant Enpro causing an estimated loss of Rs 20,000 crore to the public exchequer.
Questioning the process of shortlisting the two companies, Kejriwal said Geo Global, owned by Jean Paul Roy, was incorporated just six days before the agreement with GSPC and was expected to provide technical assistance. Not only did Geo Global admit to Securities and Exchange Commission in the US that it did not have the requisite expertise but the agreement gave the company gas fields free of cost.
A similar agreement by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance with British Petroleum ended in the latter paying Reliance an amount of $7.3 billion (Rs 35,000 crore) to acquire 30% stake and to provide technical assistance.
Kejriwal also alleged that Geo Global had received benefits from the UPA government as well with production sharing contracts in KG basin, Cambay basin, Deccan Syneclise basin and Bikaner Nagaur basin.
The allegations from the activist-duo, who have frequently been accused by Congress of being BJP’s proxies, came just over a week before the first phase of polling for Gujarat assembly, and marked an assault on Modi’s attempt to showcase himself as Mr Clean who was committed to the welfare of 6 crore Gujaratis.
It also tied in with Congress’s charge of crony capitalism against the Gujarat CM. Yet Congress, always ready to pounce upon Modi, chose to keep a distance from the activists’ volley against the CM. Sources attributed the rare reticence to the party’s wariness of Kejriwal-Bhushan, considering that Congress has borne the brunt of their attack.


BJP dismissed the charge as “motivated and mischievous”, with sources pointing to their old thesis that Kejriwal-Bhushan had been attacking BJP figures only to fend off the perception of being biased against Congress.
Jubilant Energy (a subsidiary of Jubilant Enpro) rejected the allegation that it was favoured by Modi. “Jubilant Energy won this block under international competitive bidding under the third round of New Exploration Licencing Policy of the government of India. Jubilant Energy is a partner in the block and pays fully for its 10% share of expenditure,” the company said in a statement.
“Jubilant is the original partner in this block along with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd (GSPC) as the operator of the block. This block was awarded by the government of India along with 22 other blocks at the same time to various parties, both PSUs and private sector. This block was originally an exploration block and the first discovery in this block was made much later in 2005,” it added.
The Adani group too dismissed the allegations. "The land for Special Economic Zone at Mundra was allotted following the process of law. The allegation related to coal supply by GMDC is baseless. Till date we have not received any coal from GMDC. These baseless allegations seem to be motivated and lack deeper understanding of the matter. They do not merit further response,” the group spokesperson said.
Kejriwal and Bhushan accused the Gujarat chief minister also of allocating prime land in Gandhinagar for MPs and MLAs who in turn sold it at higher prices, as well as of allocations in Kutch to the Adanis at “throwaway” prices. The same government asked for eight times the market price when the Indian Air Force approached it for land.
Alleging that Modi bought Congress silence by giving largesse to the opposition, Kejriwal said the state government had allotted plots to its MPs and MLAs in prime areas of Gandhinagar but most of them sold these plots at much higher rates

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