Sitaram Yechury

Sitaram Yechury, Member of Parliament and Leader of CPI(M) Group in the Rajya Sabha has written the following letter to the President of India today requesting him not to sanction any ordinance bypassing parliamentary procedures. The CPI(M) has always opposed such `ordinance raj’. We are releasing the text of the letter for publication.

A Left Front Parties delegation led by Biman Basu (Chairman, Left Front Committee, West Bengal), Sitaram Yechury (MP, leader of the CPI(M) Group in Rajya Sabha), Abani Roy (Ex-MP, Revolutionary Socialist Party) Surjya Kanta Mishra (Leader of the Opposition, Legislative Assembly of West Bengal), Pallab Sengupta (Communist Party of India) and Ali Imran Ramz (Member, Legislative Assembly of West Bengal, Forward Bloc) met the Prime Minister today on the issue of financial irregularities and fraud committed by financial companies in West Bengal. The delegation submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister.

The government is losing the dividend income more and more as it proceeds to off-load its share in the CPSEs in the market in regular frequency. Dividend is a recurring flow to Government. Foregoing a part of such recurring flow of income for one time sales-proceeds does not speak about economic prudence....... the very concept of “National Investment Fund (NIF)” for parking the disinvestment proceeds to be utilized for capital expenditure as well as social sector schemes is yet to take-off fully even after eight years after its constitution. And disinvestment proceeds realized during this period have all gone to meet the fiscal deficit and nowhere else.

This is a clear cut case of ethical misconduct on the part of Shri Tapas Pal which had led to denigrating the image of Parliamentarians and is also an unbecoming conduct on the part of the Member. It is therefore, kindly requested that the above said act of ethical misconduct may be referred to Committee on Ethics and suitable punitive action may be taken against the Member.

Despite the massive fraud by this Saradha Group, with closing down of all its offices and default on repayment of at least 17 lakh depositors, no action has yet been taken on the part of the SEBI and the Government of West Bengal to attach the properties of this Saradha Group...

In response to the letter written by Sitaram Yechury, member of CPI(M) Polit Bureau and Leader of CPI(M) Group in Rajya Sabha, the following reply has been received from Shri V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pension, Government of India.

Any document developed for administrative personnel of the government must show how the values in the Indian Constitution must reflect in its practice and to strengthen a secular democratic Republic. Not only does the above volume not fulfill this purpose, it actually harks back to medieval values that have little to do with modern administrative values and could even be harmful to it.

There is news circulating that I am a signatory to a petition to the US President asking for the denial of US visa for the Gujarat Chief Minister. I deny having signed any such letter.It is neither in my character nor in the principles of my Party – the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – to petition any sovereign country on matters that fall strictly within the sovereign domain of that country.

I would urge you to ensure that the Government of India plays a proactive diplomatic role in discharging its commitment for a future for the Sri Lankan Tamil community marked by equality, justice and self-respect. Needless to add, this 13th Amendment was the consequence of the historic Rajiv-Jayawardene Accord. It is, thus, expected that India plays a role in the implementation of the provisions of the Accord, while strengthening the best of relations between our two sovereign countries