Firstpost: New
Delhi: Thursday, June 23, 2016.
Almost a year
after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled 20 memberships at the Delhi Golf
Club, an RTI note now reveals who all managed a backdoor entry to Delhi’s
biggest networking ground.
“(These)
individuals are nominated for out of turn basis by the minister as per clause
21(iii) of Supplementary Lease Deed between Land Development office and Delhi
Golf Club,” said a note from the Urban Development Ministry in response to a
RTI application.
All those in
the list were sanctioned by the then Union Urban Housing Development minister
Kamal Nath, who not only renewed the 220-acre club lease for a pittance of Rs
550,000 annual rent for 30 years in 2013, but sought and gained 29 permanent
memberships of his nominees to the club, which had got its land from Jawaharlal
Nehru in 1951.
An official
from Nath’s office said the former minister is not keen to comment. An email
sent to his office went unanswered.
Nath, now in
news for his reluctance to accept the party’s offer to lead the party’s
electoral challenge in the forthcoming Punjab elections, had repeatedly refused
to share details of “out of turn” membership.
Interestingly,
the Aam Aadmi Party that wants the club to be open for public, has written to
the current urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu, and the Prime Minister’s
Office (PMO) about the Delhi Golf Club’s “favoured members”.
Interestingly,
the Delhi lieutenant governor, Najeeb Jung a bitter foe of Delhi CM Arvind
Kejriwal is a member of the club. AAP has even encouraged members to take on
the club’s high-profile members, who range from powerful bureaucrats and
Central ministers to corporate honchos and lobbyists.
The powerful
club is full of strutting peacocks and patriots and nestled amidst 15th Century
monuments.
The legendary
Marlon Brando, who had once visited the club, had called it “heavenly”. Members
include the city’s most influential, powerful and wealthy. An application for
membership has a 40-year waiting list, and that's only if the candidate passes
a stringent set of conditions.
Compared to
other clubs, the Delhi Golf Club membership comes cheap at Rs 800 per month
(non-members pay Rs 2,400 for an 18-hole round). The ITC Classic Golf Club
charges an annual fee of Rs 1.25 lakh while DLF Golf Club charges Rs 8.5 lakh
for five years. The DGC currently has 3,000 members.
The names
Nath pushed as “out of turn” members are indeed interesting.
The names are
indeed interesting. It has Ashish Chanana of Ameera Rice who was embroiled in
some major smuggling issues with the ED and DRI, noted meat exporter and hawala
trader Moin Akhtar Qureshi, Deepak Puri, who once owned Moser Baer (now a
defunct company) and his son Ratul Puri, now heading Hindustan Power Projects.
There is Angad Kapur of Atlas Cycles, a Haryana company.
Nath doled
out the memberships to the current attorney general Mukul Rohtagi, the former
additional solicitor general Amarjit Singh Chandhiok, DLF CEO Mohit Gujral,
Mohammed Faisal Patel, son of powerful Congress leader Ahmed Patel, Amit Kumar
Bansal, son of former Railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, Haryana politician
Deepender Singh Hooda, Trinamool Congress leader and former Railway minister
Dinesh Trivedi.
Among the
glitterati, the list has some interesting names. There is fashion designer Ritu
Beri, seasoned, globe trotting marketeer and author, Suhel Seth, another
fashion designer Anand Ahuja, top heart doctor Naresh Trehan, Lord Krishna Bank
head Mohan Puri and Neeraj Bharadwaj of Carlyle Group.
Interestingly,
a host of bureaucrats made it to the list, among them some working under Nath.
There were Sudha Krishnan, a joint secretary, Khalid Bin Jamal, private
secretary and other bureaucrats like Neeraj Kumar Gupta of Department of Public
Enterprises and former PMO official Jawed Ashraf.
A senior
official of the Delhi Golf Club said he was “not authorised to comment on
special quota members because it is done from the top”.
Interestingly,
the club had for almost a decade stalled various efforts to seek information
about members, especially those nominated by the minister.
But the wall
crumbled last year when the Central Information Commission ruled the upmarket
club to be a "public authority'' under the RTI Act, and thus answerable to
members of the public.
The ruling
was delivered by Information Commissioner ML Sharma on 30 August, 2015 in
response to an appeal filed by intrepid RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal,
whose RTI application of September 2012 was turned down because the Delhi Golf
Club (DGC) had responded by saying it was a registered company under the
provisions of the Companies Act 1956, and not a public authority.
The
high-profile club last year shot into news after some members complained about
glaring discrepancies in sanctioning membership, including three non-government
functionaries inducted by former urban development minister Kamal Nath in the
DGC General Committee, the highest decision-making body of the club. The three
members nominated by the previous UPA government include Rajiv Luthra, Rajan
Gupta and Duke Walia.
The NDA
government in January cancelled the membership of 27 serving and retired
bureaucrats to the Delhi Golf Club. Members alleged that the presence of
“non-bureaucrats” in the General Committee was not serving any purpose. The
government wanted to remove two permanent members but the president declined,
saying the existing rules do not permit their removal.
And now, AAP
wants to turn the DGC into a mass park, almost like New York’s 778-acre Central
Park and London's Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens complex that measure 625
acres and offer residents and visitors space for recreation.
The last word
has not been spoken on this peculiar battle for the greens.
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