Vyapam: Rahul targets PM for going soft on Shivraj Chouhan

“Our PM once said, and we all remember this. ‘I won’t eat, nor  would I allow others to eat.” As Prime Minister, your words should carry some weight. Why are you letting people eat? Why are you allowing them to continue in Madhya Pradesh and in Rajasthan?” Gandhi said. He said Shivraj Singh Chouhan, under whose watch the examination scandal unfolded in Madhya Pradesh, should be asked to resign. Rahul Gandhi’s statement comes on a day the Supreme Court ordered a CBI investigation into the Vyapam scandal and the deaths of accused and witnesses linked to it.

Rahul also targeted the PM over the controversy involving former Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi who was reportedly helped by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to get temporary travel papers. Lalit Modi, who faces cases of money laundering and FOREX violations, also revealed recently that Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had signed a secret affidavit backing his immigration papers in <g data-gr-id="43">UK</g>. “Why are you allowing corruption in Rajasthan. When are you bringing back Lalit Modi,” Gandhi said referring to the corruption scandals linking the former IPL boss and the Raje family.

His party colleague and senior leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday welcomed the decision of the SC for a CBI probe into all Vyapam scam cases and alleged deaths related to it.

Singh said, “With this decision, the faith of the country in <g data-gr-id="53">judiciary</g> has increased. We are thankful to the Supreme Court.” The Congress leader also took a dig at Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and said, “Thank God...God has now given him (Shivraj) wisdom...Both Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Shivraj Singh Chouhan have had to take U-turn.” Asked whether he would demand Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav, who is allegedly involved in the scam to quit, he said that he would “appeal” to the Governor to resign instead of making the demand.”The Governor had fallen in bad company, so he will have to suffer”, he said taking a dig at Chouhan. 

He said, “Students who were made to believe that money was the only way to get admission to higher education in the state <g data-gr-id="49">are</g> behind bars but those who took the bribe are roaming free,” while making a strong pitch for freeing the students and making them prosecution witnesses so that they could expose the corrupt people. Targeting the Centre and BJP, the Congress leader said that it removed Governors against whom there was no FIR, but retained the one against whom there was an FIR. Singh, a former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, declared that his campaign would now be aimed against the sand mafia in the state which has already taken three lives, including that of a young IAS officer.

Claiming that Vyapam is a “bigger scam” than 2G spectrum allocation scandal, he said that it is for the first time that a record number of people are in jails in the case which has also seen a large number of deaths. Some 2,000 people are in jails and 600 are still absconding, he said. Singh alleged that there was an RSS link to the scam, claiming that the names of some of its leaders had cropped up in the case.