Two Adarsh questions will be crucial to Ashok Chavan’s fate

Will chief minister Ashok Chavan manage to extricate actual facts about the Adarsh housing society scandal from the public perception created through the media? His survival will depend a lot on this. Sources in the party say he does not exactly stand on a weak ground in the case.

His political fate hinges on two crucial questions about Adarsh: One, whether the land belonged to the state government and two, whether it was exclusively formed for Kargil heroes and war widows.

Chavan may get a clean chit from the two-member Congress committee probing the matter if he manages to provide convincing answers on both.

The documents produced by the state revenue department prove to some extent that the title of the land was with the government and it was given for defence use.

Secondly, there is enough evidence to establish that the decision to accommodate the Kargil war heroes and war widows was not integral to the formation of the housing society.

It was added later to expedite the process, according to sources in the Congress.

On the coastal regulatory zone clearance for the project, senior officials said, “During the period the project was initiated, environmental clearance was issued by the respective states for projects. There was no provision that the state government should seek central environmental clearance for the CRZ for the housing projects. This issue is being debated in public since 1999, but it is being exploited vigorously now to nail the chief minister.”

When the housing society was formed originally, there was adequate provision to accommodate defence officials.

But what the committee comprising defence minister AK Antony and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will primarily concentrate on are these two basic questions.

Nobody from the party at the state and central levels is willing to open up after the gag order from the central leadership. But in private, a senior AICC functionary said:

“The Congress will have to deal with the current crisis in two parts. It will have to separate the public perception created through media from that of the real facts. If the purpose of setting the society was not entirely for Kargil war heroes or widows then how can Chavan be faulted with accommodating 60% civilians and 40% defence personnel?” Of the 37 applicants from the defence background, three were connected to the Kargil war.

Again, the issue is not about Chavan alone. The process of the controversial housing society was initiated in 1999. Former Shiv Sena leader Kanhaiyyalal Gidwani - he is the state Congress spokesperson now— was active in it.

There is documentary evidence to prove that former chief minister Narayan Rane, then in the Shiv Sena-BJP government, had also sent the file for further pursuance. Later, his successor former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had also given his consent for the housing project.

Both Rane and Deshmukh have indicated that they had no role in the project and they were not aware of any violations.

The state government has already made its submissions about the land title, war widows and environmental clearance issue to the committee investigating the matter.