Report by Viju Mangalore Pics by Dayanand Kukkaje
Mangalore, Jun 23: The Mangalore Special Economic Zone was in the eye of a controversy right from its planning phase.
The project being practically drawn out of the tight fist of former oil and gas minister Mani Shankar Iyer, Mangalore finally got the SEZ for itself. All seemed well until the tussle between the Congress and BJP surfaced on claiming credit for the job.
On Friday, June 23 at 11-30 am the IAF Boeing aircraft carrying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not land in Mangalore on because of poor visibility and heavy rains and was diverted to Bangalore. Even the private aircraft carrying petroleum and natural gas minister Murli Deora was diverted to Mumbai for the same reason.
The BJP leaders, which was waiting for an opportunity to make their presence felt, took advantage of the situation and chaos was created at the venue where the foundation stone for the ONGC’s Rs 4,900 crore petrochemical complex was to be laid.
Taking the lead, BJP MP D V Sadananda Gowda raised his voice against the plan to postpone the programme. He told the ONGC officials that the programme should go ahead as scheduled, even in the absence of the PM.
Augmenting his argument, district-in-charge minister B Nagaraj Shetty, NRI entrepreneur B R Shetty and other BJP leaders said that postponing of the event would result in a loss to the tune of Rs 2 crore incurred for the arrangement for the programme.
After a heated exchange of words between the BJP leaders and the ONGC officials, it was almost decided to go on with the programme. But as if to blow the wind off their sails, ONGC chairman and managing director R S Sharma announced the postponement of the programme, which incensed the BJP leaders and led them to immediately squat on the floor in protest.
Fiery words echoed the venue from the mouth of D V Sadananda Gowda who slammed the ONGC officials for ignoring the people’s representatives.
Speaking to the media, Sadananda Gowda blamed the ONGC officials for not discussing the matter with the district in-charge minister or the MP who were present at the venue. “It’s a disgrace to the nation that the ONGC’s top official behaved without showing any courtesy”.
“It was the BJP which initiated the SEZ plan and were behind it until it was sanctioned. But the ONGC top heads did not acknowledge this nor were those BJP people who worked behind the scenes recognized. Instead much hype was created by displaying the photographs of those who never worked for the SEZ,” said Gowda pointing out that the Congress leaders were wrongly given credit to the realization of the SEZ project.
Coming down heavily on the ONGC chairman, Gowda said that the officer should have consulted the district in- charge minister and the people’s representatives in the matter. He also criticized ONGC for violating the protocol by not inviting local MPs and MLAs for the foundation-laying ceremony of ONGC petrochemicals complex planned on Friday.
The programme expenditure is around Rs 2 crore and it’s public money that will go down the drain if the programme is cancelled, he added.
The BJP group was adamant that the ONGC chairman personally apologized for the lapse.
After a long wait of suspense and uncertainly, the chairman finally made his appearance and expressed a half-hearted apology, which went thus “If you (Gowda) think I have done anything wrong, then I am sorry for it”. The situation calmed down thereafter.
Several observers of this event were of the opinion that the media which was capturing every moment of this drama practically encouraged the cast to present a better performance. Some could not miss observing that once the audience started melting away and the mediapersons started leaving one by one, the agitators realized that they no longer enjoyed the limelight and slowly softened their stand.
Others even expressed to Daijiworld that the BJP had taken undue advantage of the situation to get quick political mileage in the national level, esp. in the presence of a large posse of national media. A media colleague observed that it was an opportunity available to them on a golden platter to gain publicity at the national level and they made best use of it.
At the same time, it was also felt by many that if the ONGC had not given proper importance as required under protocol, it was absolutely wrong and that could have handled the situation more discreetly.
After an amicable settlement, Gowda and his supporters shared lunch with the ONGC officials.
Unofficial sources have placed the total expenditure incurred on the organizing of the event to Rs 5 crore. But for the BJP leaders, it’s a national-level mileage at the public cost of Rs 5 crore, but at no personal expense !