Deve Gowda to Pranab Mukherjee : Probe Reddys
Apr 22 (DC): Just when he was about give up his fight against the Bellary Reddy brothers, the Shashi Tharoor incident happened. With the Congress launching a full fledged attack on the BJP on its failure to contain corruption, former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda has found enough reason to revive his campaign against the mining magnates.
In a move to up the heat on the Reddys, Gowda met Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday morning and sought a probe by the Income Tax department into their financial deals.
Incidentally, Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan had on Monday spoken about the failure of the Yeddyurappa government to act against the Reddy brothers despite enough evidence of an illegal mining scam.
When contacted, Gowda refused to go into details of the meeting . Confirming the meeting, he said , “I met him to discuss constituency-related issues.”
Party spokesperson, Y.S.V. Datta was more forthcoming and told media that Gowda had discussed the alleged financial irregularities committed by the Reddy Brothers while indulging in illegal mining.
The JD(S) is obviously intent on making the most of the Congress outburst against the BJP on the deals of the Reddy brothers. “He briefed Mukherjee on how the Reddys had become rich in ten years by indulging in illegal mining. He wanted the finance minister to get his officials to investigate the income flow of the Reddys,” sources added.
Gowda has also reportedly handed over to Mukherjee copies of the Lokayukta report on illegal mining and copies of the judgements pronounced by Justice K.A. Swamy and Justice K.L. Manjunath on mining in Bellary. He even highlighted the ‘human rights’ violations by the Reddys in the district.
To support his contention, Gowda has enclosed copies of a recent order passed by state human rights commission chairman Justice S.R. Nayak on the violations. He also complained to Mukherjee about the inability of the Congress to take on the BJP despite being the principal opposition party in Karnataka.
Gowda and 30 TDP MPs have given a petition to Lok Sabha speaker, Meira Kumar seeking a discussion on the illegal mining issue on the floor of Parliament, Datta said.