The Union environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh?s dustups with Cabinet colleagues like Kamal Nath, Sharad Pawar and Sriprakash Jaiswal, etc, are grist for the mill by now. But his green campaign has reached new heights in letters to presiding officers of both houses of Parliament, namely Meira Kumar and Hamid Ansari. Here, Ramesh launched a scathing attack on MPs at large, pointing out how they show ?serious conflict of interests? when they approach the environmental ministry on specific projects. Ramesh maps an interesting troika. First, there are MPs who approach on behalf of the companies they run or with which they are closely associated. Here, let?s remember how Hema Malini got into trouble for pushing an excise cut for water purifiers using the reverse osmosis technology while enjoying a direct, commercial link with one such manufacturer. The second category that Ramesh objects to is that of MPs who plead for or against projects that are neither in their state nor in their constituency. The third category, one for which Ramesh has sympathy, is made up of MPs who approach with reference to projects that are either in their state or constituency.
All of this is happening against the backdrop of lobbying getting into the limelight like never before. We have argued for legalising and regulating lobbying. The Jairam missive underscores this need. When MPs hand out petrol pumps, gas agencies, kerosene dealerships, land titles (read the Karnataka scandal) and so on, let this information make it to the public domain. Ditto for when MPs lobby for a project, whether with Ramesh or some other minister.
