A favourable direction from the Supreme Court that will ensure a CBI probe into the Vyapam scam has strengthened the morale of the Congress, which has been at the forefront of agitations demanding the resignation of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The party, which failed in three consecutive Assembly elections in the State, is also making efforts to put the moral authority of the BJP’s affairs on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With the rising number of deaths in connection with the issue, the other opposition parties — who otherwise were talking in different voices on the Lalit Modi controversy — have also come together, vowing to raise the issue at the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.
The Left parties had already taken a position similar to the Congress. Now, the Trinamool Congress and the Janata Parivar have decided to raise corruption issues in Parliament.
A visibly buoyed Congress is pointing fingers at the PM for his “inability” to rein in the “corrupt” in his party. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi reminded Modi that he had promised that he will not allow corruption. “I have just one question. Mr Prime Minister, what you say must carry weight. You said “ na khaoonga, na khane doonga ”. Why are you allowing corruption in Rajasthan?
“What are you doing to bring back Lalit Modi? Why are you not acting against Shivraj Singh Chouhan?” he said, adding that Chouhan must resign in the wake of the Supreme Court order handing over the probe to the CBI.
Student witnessesCongress leader Digvijaya Singh, who had filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court, said students who are in jail in connection with the case should be made prosecution witnesses to expose the “nexus” between corrupt officials, police and politicians in the scandal.
He appealed to Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav to resign. “The Governor had fallen in bad company, so he will have to suffer,” the former CM said.
Singh said several top RSS leaders are linked to the scam and the names of some of them have cropped up in the case.
Vyapam is a bigger scam than the 2G spectrum allocation scandal, he said, adding that it is for the first time that a record number of people are in jail in a case which has also seen a large number of deaths. “Some 2,000 people are in jail and 600 are still absconding,” he added.