By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Malappuram: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala said that Opposition leader Oommen Chandy and he had not interfered in the probe order regarding the Haj quota scam. The probe was ordered by the Ministry of External Affairs to seek measures to distribute the Haj quota more transparently and not against E Ahmed, he added. He was speaking at a press conference in New Delhi.
Mr Chennithala said that there was no clear cut rule on the distribution of Haj quota earlier. There arose some complaints from the part of the tour operators. The Minister of External Affairs said that a policy would be made considering these complaints. The External Affairs Ministry meant to make a clear policy on the matter so that the complaints of tour operators won’t remain, he added.
There were allegations that the Congress leaders in Kerala had intervened against the probe ordered by the Ministry of External Affairs. The Muslim League, reportedly, was enraged by the move of the ministry to order probe at the very first instance of the arising of allegations regarding the Haj quota. The party had always stood with the Congress at all times, even in the time of the demolition of the Babri Masjid when all other Muslim organizations had turned against the Congress.
The Haj quota scam was brought to light by TV channel CNN-IBN. The channel reported that irregularities were involved in the distribution of the Haj quota. Money was involved in the allocation of seats to certain private Haj tour operators. The channel also alleged that the Al Hind Travels, based in Kozhikode, was allotted more seats than other travel agencies and that money was involved in it. The report maintained that the irregularities had taken place when E Ahmed was the minister in charge of Haj Affairs in the last UPA government.
However, E Ahmed has refuted all charges against him. He said that the charges were solely political. The Muslim League also has denied the charges and said that they were baseless. The allegations had arisen during the time of the elections and still, the people of Kerala had given clear mandate to E Ahmed. PK Kunhalikkutty, Muslim League state general secretary, alleged that the charges were raised to deviate the attention of the public from more serious matters.