Veteran party MP and former Himachal CM dashes letter to Amit Shah on Vyapam, other scandals.
New Delhi : The last thing the BJP wanted on the first day of the monsoon session was a revolt from within. In what created a lot of embarrassment for the entire BJP leadership, veteran parliamentarian and former chief minister Shanta Kumar said the ‘party head hangs in shame’ due to the Vyapam scam and other charges.
Shanta Kumar, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, was quoting from his letter which he had dashed off to party president Amit Shah about ten days back. He said nobody from Shah’s office or the party had contacted him on the issue.
However, the party leadership sent senior leader and union minister JP Nadda to pacify the veteran on Tuesday after the 80-year old leader’s letter hit the headlines.
‘‘We came to power with a lot of pride and formed the government at the Centre. One year of government was a year of outstanding achievements…while we were celebrating came an eclipse,’’ he wrote in the letter which has now been uploaded on his Facebook page. ‘‘Yes, I wrote that letter and I stand by every word,’’ Kumar said on Tuesday. The senior leader has also mentioned Rajasthan and Maharashtra in the missive in an obvious reference to the Lalitgate and Chikki scams. Kumar has even suggested an internal Lokpal in the party to keep a check on further scandals. He said the morale of the party cadres has suffered a blow after the recent revelations.
Meanwhile, cabinet minister Ravishankar Prasad said irritably that if Shanta Kumar was so concerned about corruption, he could also have spoken about the corrupt deals of Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh being investigated by the CBI.
