There are ripples in Madhya Pradesh politics again after Bakul Nath’s name cropped up in AgustaWestland chopper scam.
Bakul is the son of former chief minister Kamal Nath. Earlier, his nephew Ratul Puri’s name figured in the scam.
Nath is the president of MP Congress Committee as well as the leader of opposition in the House. An accused in the scam Rajiv Saxena said the money of his company Interstellar Technology and that of Christian Michel’s firm Global Services had been used to pay the loan of Bakul Nath’s firm, Pristine River.
The BJP has begun to attack Nath after Saxena’s statement. BJP’s state unit president VD Sharma said it showed that the family of Nath had been involved in the AugustaWasteland scam. Now that such a scam has come to light, Nath should resign from the post of MPCC president, Sharma said. He urged Nath to tender an apology to the nation for treachery and for telling lies to the people.
Sharma has wanted to know from Nath the name of the country where his son is an NRI. He also appealed to Nath to tell what his son does, and who gave the money to pay the loan.
Other leaders of the BJP also began to take Nath to task over the issue. The Congress, which had to eat humble pie in the by-elections suffered another setback after the name of Nath’s son cropped up in the scam.
The Congress, however, called it a lie of the BJP. Vice-chairman of the Congress’s media committee Bhupendra Gupta said Nath had already made it clear that he had nothing to do with the firms of his nephew.
Otherwise also, the Congress has nothing to do with the AugustaWasteland case, Gupta said, adding that the deal had been cancelled during the tenure of Manmohan Singh as prime minister.
Even after the cancellation of the deal, former chief minister of Chhattisgarh Raman Singh had inked a pact with the company, Gupta said.
Therefore, Singh should be questioned about the deal, he added.
According to Gupta, the deal was signed during the tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister, but allegations are being made against the Congress.
Nonetheless, the BJP has laid its hands on an issue. During the by-elections, Nath made several allegations of corruption against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Although Nath is calling himself a politician with a clean image, the charges against his son may occasion trouble for him.
