Sushma settles score with Mahajan?

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 21. Bharatiya Janata Party leaders today came out strongly in defence of the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, in the wake of allegations that Integral Productions, a company in which his son and wife had a share, had been favoured by Prasar Bharati, and that the company owed more than Rs. 5 crores to Prasar Bharati. The party leaders said even if the charges were true, they amounted to nepotism at most. It was not a case of corruption as alleged by the Congress which has demanded Mr. Mahajan's resignation.

But, even as this controversy surfaced in a section of the press, the managing director of Integral Productions, Mr. Irfaan Khan, stated today in a press release that both Mr. Rahul Mahajan and Mrs. Rekha Mahajan, son and wife of the Minister, had resigned from the company on December 7, 1998, two days after Mr. Mahajan became Minister. ``Soon thereafter, they transferred all their shares, which were worth only Rs. 25,000. Till today, neither Rahul nor Mrs. Mahajan has repurchased a single share.''

However, Mr. Khan conceded, as of today, his company owed Prasar Bharati Rs. 5.10 crores, balance in a Rs. 8.45-crore contractual payment. And his excuse for non-payment was that the company could not sell the planned advertisement slots for 31 episodes of the sponsored serial `Truck Dhina Dhin', which were telecast. Nevertheless, the company claimed good audience rating. The controversy threatened to not only embarrass the Vajpayee Government but also bring into the open the political rivalry, even hostility, between Mr. Mahajan and Ms. Sushma Swaraj, who has recently taken over as Minister for Information and Broadcasting. In fact, in BJP circles, her hand was suspected in the anti-Mahajan ``leak'' to the press.

Ms. Swaraj has already said she has asked her Ministry to collect all facts and that she would order an inquiry only if the facts so demanded.

The Mahajan-Swaraj animosity dates back to the Delhi Assembly elections. Ms. Swaraj's supporters believe that Mr. Mahajan had a hand in convincing the top BJP leadership to make her Chief Minister of Delhi, a month before the polls were due and when the situation for the party seemed quite hopeless. She was asked to accept the party decision and forced to resign from the Union Cabinet. The party's rout left Ms. Swaraj out in the cold for quite a while - she refused to accept a party post and the Prime Minister would not accommodate her in the Cabinet, till the latest small expansion.

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Section  : National
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