After CD, land controversy for Bhushans

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, April 20:  Shanti Bhushan, who is the co-chairman of a new committee that will draft a bill to combat corruption, is now the epicenter of a new controversy.

Mr Bhushan and his son, Jayant, have been given two plots in Noida by the Uttar Pradesh government for Rs. 3.5 crore -  that’s just one-fourth the market price, according to some estimates.

The story first appeared in the newspaper The Indian Express this morning.

The plot had been mentioned by Shanti Bhushan in the list of assets that he declared when he was named co-chair of the committee that is developing the Lokpal Bill -it includes five ministers and five representatives of civil society, including Shanti Bhushan and his son, Prashant.

The land was allotted to the Bhushans in 2009 as part of a scheme offered by the government ’for development of farmhouses on agricultural land.’  Close to 100 people reportedly qualified. The process followed by the government has been challenged in court by Vikas Singh, who has in the past served as Former Additional Solicitor General of the UP government. Mr Singh alleges that the government’s allotment lacked transparency.  He was allotted a plot too - he believes this was done to stop him from publicly questioning the procedure followed by the government.

The fact that the Bhushans accepted the land is being questioned by some who point out that Jayant Bhushan took on Mayawati in a court case that challenged her decision to set up a memorial park in a part of Noida that is ecologically sensitive because of its proximity to a bird sanctuary. Jayant Bhushan denied that given his legal battle with Mayawati, there could be a conflict of interest in accepting two plots of 10,000 square metres each from her government.

In a statement today, Shanti Bhushan said: "The report in the Indian Express this morning mischievously suggests that Jayant Bhushan and I have taken two farm plots from Mayawati from her discretionary quota. This is also a part of the malicious campaign by those corrupt, influential people who are afraid that my presence in the drafting committee may result in a tough law against corruption in the form of a Lokpal bill....so far, possession has not been delivered, nor the lease deal executed...if there has been any arbitrariness in the allotment of the plots, the allotments should be cancelled and we would certainly not challenge the cancellation."

Shanti Bhushan was selected by civil society activists led by Anna Hazare to serve as the co-chairman of the Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee after a four-day hunger strike by Mr Hazare last month, supported by lakhs of Indians, forced the government to agree that the committee that would work on the Lokpal Bill would include five activists and that one of them would head the panel along with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Barely 48 hours after Mr Bhushan was named the co-chair, a CD was delivered anonymously to media companies including NDTV. The CD has a conversation between three men purported to be Amar Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Shanti Bhushan.

The man purported to be Mr Bhushan says that a judge can be bribed and that his son, Prashant, can handle this.

The Bhushans have said that while the voice on the CD does seem to be Shanti Bhushan’s, the CD holds spliced conversations which have been stitched together to form a dishonest narrative.

It is only after the plot has been made approachable by construction of roads that possession would be delivered and lease executed.