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Congress accuses PM of Sugargate Scam

The Congress today accused Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of ordering the import of a large quantity of sugar from Pakistan and providing much-needed foreign exchange worth Rs 9 billion to that country's military establishment just before the Kargil operations.

Describing this as the 'Sugargate Scam', Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal charged Vajpayee with actively conniving and consorting with Pakistan and sacrificing the interest of India's cane growers. The prime minister had betrayed the nation, he said.

The Congress spokesman claimed the deal was clinched with the Rawalpindi-based Army Welfare Trust and the Delhi-based Kundan Rice Mills. The agreement to purchase 80,000 tonnes of sugar was signed in February. The Army Welfare Trust, he said, procured the exportable sugar from sugar mills owned by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief and his family.

The funds in foreign exchange, Sibal alleged, went directly to the Pakistan army to purchase arms and ammunition to be used against India. The deal was brokered when Pakistan was reeling under a serious foreign exchange crisis following the sanctions imposed by the United States.

Sibal wanted the prime minister to explain R K Mishra's role in the sugar deal. Mishra, whose services were utilised by the prime minister during the Kargil crisis, went to London in September 1998 to finalise the controversial sugar deal, the Congress spokesman alleged. It was significant, he added, that Mishra was given a one-year multiple entry visa by the Pakistan high commission in London, a privilege rarely granted to Indians.

Mishra, he claimed, was also exempted from reporting to any police stations in Pakistan, a usual practice for all visiting Indians.

Sibal alleged that whenever Mishra visited Pakistan, he was provided with a special plane and a special flagged vehicle by the Indian embassy.

He said Vajpayee had dared the Congress yesterday that it should come out with evidence to substantiate party president Sonia Gandhi's charge that the Prime Minister's Office was involved in shady deals. The Congress, he said, would not like to let him down and this exposition is first in the series of revelations against the PMO.

Sibal made it clear that the Congress, when returned to power, would constitute a high level probe into the sugar deal. Significantly, he said, the massive purchase of sugar from Pakistan was made when India had an unsold stock of 10.4 million tonnes which could meet the country's requirements for nine months. The Union food ministry had objected to the deal which was overruled by the prime minister.

The Congress spokesman said the purchase price was at least 25 cents per tonne over the then prevailing international price. Nawaz Sharief has a major share in eight of the 15 sugar mills in Pakistan. The imported sugar was also of an inferior refined quality, he claimed. The nation, he said, deserved to know the full extent to which the PMO went to protect this ''cosy arrangement'' between Vajpayee and Sharief.

Sibal said the inquiry the Congress proposed to conduct once returned to power would include whether the prime minister had sacrificed the interest of "our jawans and cane growers" to benefit Sharief and his family. It would also cover whether the bottomline of the deal when Vajpayee bought Sharief's sugar was a price for his bus journey to Lahore.

The sugar imports continued despite farmers co-operatives and the sugar manufacturers association asking the government to stop imports from Pakistan. The government, he said, did not think it fit to stop the imports even when the Kargil intrusions occurred. Though the chief ministers of major sugar producing states had repeatedly advocated an increase in import duty, he said, the measure did not find favour with the PMO.

UNI

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