I’m sorry to be the one saying it but it needs to be said Jeff Lingaya’s hunger strike was a failure. He put an end on Tuesday to what was a travesty of a hunger strike. A travesty that started when he agreed to be put under perfusion, fi ve days before the offi cial breaking of the fast. In truth, his real hunger strike actually lasted six to seven days. But let’s not bicker – the point remains unchanged Lingaya failed.

He went on strike because he was aggrieved with the government’s decision to grant CT Power its EIA license all he got in return was Navin Ramgoolam’s and Deva Virahsawmy’s relentlessness bordering on the stubborn “ we can’t cancel the EIA license it would be tantamount to a contempt of court”, they have both said.

I am shocked by the bad faith shown by these two men I am even more shocked that Lingaya accepted Ramgoolam’s argument at face value. If the government was really respectful of the courts why then did they not wait for the Supreme Court’s decisions in the two cases currently before it? One of them puts into question the legality of the Environment tribunal that “ ordered” government to grant the EAI license to CT Power. I use inverted commas when I write “ ordered” because the tribunal came to that decision only when the ministry of Environment chose not to defend its own position before that tribunal. Did Lingaya not know this, perhaps? Shouldn’t a government respectful of the judiciary have waited for the court’s decision in that matter? The government didn’t, same as it chose not to contest the tribunal’s ruling.

More importantly, the second court case concerns allegations of fraud and corruption.

It reveals the fact that CT Power doesn’t belong to Subramaniam anymore and it makes the argument that the new owners are unknown.

Why is the government refusing to tell us who stands to make billions if CT Power goes ahead? Why are they all pretending the question hasn’t even been asked? Why didn’t Lingaya ask it by the way? It’s all well and good if some people want this debate to be about coal or no coal. But it’s not. It’s about corruption, it’s about opacity and it’s about rewarding the cronies. It started with an unsolicited bid and it remains tainted.

So no, Jeff, you didn’t win any battle you made them think they got away with it.