The Congress Political Affairs Committee (PAC) has resolved to politically and legally face the cases and charges levelled against party leaders in the solar scam.
Briefing reporters about the deliberations of the committee here on Saturday, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president M.M. Hassan said the committee had unanimously resolved to fight the cases. The government was framing cases of sexual harassment and corruption against leaders such as Oommen Chandy, K.C. Venugopal and others with political vengeance, he said.
The government aim was to destroy the Congress and destabilise the United Democratic Front (UDF) and make the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the principal Opposition in Kerala. The BJP and the CPI(M) had struck a deal in this score. He accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of imposing his decision on his Cabinet colleagues and forging a nexus with the BJP.
After announcing his decision to register criminal cases against Congress leaders, Mr. Vijayan had gone back and again sought legal advice. This had ratified the Congress charge that the government decision to implicate Congress leaders in solar cases was made without adequate legal scrutiny or consultation.
Mr. Vijayan’s stance had given way to doubts that legal advice from the Advocate General and the Director General of Prosecutions was sought after giving them a script to put the Congress leaders in the dock, he said.
As per the Secretariat Manual and Rules of Business of the government, the government should elicit the opinion of the Law Department, but it had been bypassed. Even the Law Secretary was not taken into confidence. The decision to summon the Assembly on November 9 for tabling the report was aimed at saving the government’s face, he said.
