Less than two years ago, Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was gloating about the disintegration of the Congress in his state. But this week, he has reason to fear a show of unity by the party's leaders.
Congress parliamentarians Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia, the state party chief Arun Yadav, leader of the opposition in the assembly Satya Deo Katare and member Suresh Pachori held a joint press meet, a rare occurrence, on February 16. At the meet, they accused the chief minister of tampering with evidence to save his skin in a multi-billion-rupee scam involving the state's Professional Examination Board.
This board is responsible for conducting tests for admission into the state’s medical colleges and for recruitment to government departments. The scam surfaced in July 2013, when the Indore police arrested a doctor suspected of taking money from candidates in return for arranging for supposedly better-prepared impersonators to take the tests. The scam also involves other irregularities, such as manipulating the seating arrangement.
The Congress leaders alleged that the chief minister had manipulated data in an Excel spreadsheet on the hard disk belonging to the board's system analyst, Nitin Mahindra, who is also a suspect. The original spreadsheet had the name 'Shivraj Singh' in 48 places but these had been deleted, they claimed.
The scam
The police has registered more than 150 First Information Reports related to the scam. Hundreds of medical students and middlemen who colluded with officials in the board are in jail, but hundreds of others are absconding.
Among those in jail are a former minister, the minister's officer on special duty, the governor Ram Narsh Yadav's officer on special duty, two senior BJP leaders, a senior bureaucrat's husband, a senior police officer's brother, a Congress leader and dozens of parents who paid money to middlemen to get their children fraudulently admitted into medical colleges or placed in government jobs.
The scam is still unravelling, with more cases of fraud continuing to surface. Most of these were allegedly executed by Pankaj Trivedi, the board's exam controller, and its system analyst Nitin Mahindra, acting on recommendations from politicians and their aides or middlemen with whom the duo had struck deals. The duo would apparently enter names of such recommenders in spreadsheets. It is with one of these that the chief minister has tampered, the Congress leaders alleged.
Strong denial
The chief minister denied the Congress's allegations and has threatened to sue Singh for spreading "canards" against him. Singh, who has been vigorously pursuing the scam in and out of the courts for more than a year, has dared the chief minister to arrest him if the allegations are incorrect. He has even filed an affidavit before the special investigation team, saying he was prepared to be arrested if his accusation was proven wrong.
The SIT was recently appointed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice AM Khanwilkar to monitor progress of the investigation being conducted by the state government-appointed special task force. Singh had pleaded with the chief justice to order a CBI inquiry.
But the chief justice ruled that the task force was doing a fine job and no other probe was required. The Congress considers his rejection of a CBI probe a big blow to the investigation. Over the past year, the party's leaders have therefore undertaken protests and fasts, courted arrest and called for bandhs to push for a CBI inquiry.
"We are deeply disappointed by the high court’s verdict," said Singh. "How can the task force, which works directly under the state government, fairly probe charges against the chief minister? We demand that he step down to pave way for free and fair investigation."
The BJP says the Congress must honour the court's verdict and let the task force work without pressure. BJP spokesman and senior minister Narottam Mishra points out that Singh is levelling baseless allegations out of frustration because he had employed a battery of senior lawyers to argue in the high court and the Supreme Court for a CBI probe, but that has proven futile. Mishra claimed that the original spreadsheet was with the task force and it has handed it over to the SIT.
Cause for worry
Despite the denials, the chief minister is rattled because, for the first time, the Congress has alleged that he is directly involved in the scam and that he tampered with the evidence. At the press conference, senior lawyers KTS Tulsi and Vivek Tankha, who appeared on behalf of Singh, reiterated the Congress leaders' allegations against the chief minister.
Chouhan’s main worry is that if this scam gets publicity through the national media, the Supreme Court might take suo motu cognisance and order a CBI probe, according to sources in the BJP. He dreads the possibility of this scam harming his image the way the multi-crore Saradha scam did to that of his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee after the Supreme Court ordered a CBI probe into the chit fund fraud.
If the CBI probes the examination scam, Chouhan will become vulnerable vis-à-vis Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Although Chouhan has cautiously avoided antagonising Modi so far, the perception endures that there is a rivalry between the two men. Chouhan is seen as being in the LK Advani-Sushma Swaraj camp, which won't endear him with the prime minister.
On Monday, Chouhan was nervously keeping a tab on developments relating to the scam. The state government’s public relations machinery was in overdrive to ensure that the joint press meet did not get wide coverage. But these attempts failed and the story was splashed in media outlets across the country, deepening the crisis in Madhya Pradesh.
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Congress parliamentarians Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia, the state party chief Arun Yadav, leader of the opposition in the assembly Satya Deo Katare and member Suresh Pachori held a joint press meet, a rare occurrence, on February 16. At the meet, they accused the chief minister of tampering with evidence to save his skin in a multi-billion-rupee scam involving the state's Professional Examination Board.
This board is responsible for conducting tests for admission into the state’s medical colleges and for recruitment to government departments. The scam surfaced in July 2013, when the Indore police arrested a doctor suspected of taking money from candidates in return for arranging for supposedly better-prepared impersonators to take the tests. The scam also involves other irregularities, such as manipulating the seating arrangement.
The Congress leaders alleged that the chief minister had manipulated data in an Excel spreadsheet on the hard disk belonging to the board's system analyst, Nitin Mahindra, who is also a suspect. The original spreadsheet had the name 'Shivraj Singh' in 48 places but these had been deleted, they claimed.
The scam
The police has registered more than 150 First Information Reports related to the scam. Hundreds of medical students and middlemen who colluded with officials in the board are in jail, but hundreds of others are absconding.
Among those in jail are a former minister, the minister's officer on special duty, the governor Ram Narsh Yadav's officer on special duty, two senior BJP leaders, a senior bureaucrat's husband, a senior police officer's brother, a Congress leader and dozens of parents who paid money to middlemen to get their children fraudulently admitted into medical colleges or placed in government jobs.
The scam is still unravelling, with more cases of fraud continuing to surface. Most of these were allegedly executed by Pankaj Trivedi, the board's exam controller, and its system analyst Nitin Mahindra, acting on recommendations from politicians and their aides or middlemen with whom the duo had struck deals. The duo would apparently enter names of such recommenders in spreadsheets. It is with one of these that the chief minister has tampered, the Congress leaders alleged.
Strong denial
The chief minister denied the Congress's allegations and has threatened to sue Singh for spreading "canards" against him. Singh, who has been vigorously pursuing the scam in and out of the courts for more than a year, has dared the chief minister to arrest him if the allegations are incorrect. He has even filed an affidavit before the special investigation team, saying he was prepared to be arrested if his accusation was proven wrong.
The SIT was recently appointed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice AM Khanwilkar to monitor progress of the investigation being conducted by the state government-appointed special task force. Singh had pleaded with the chief justice to order a CBI inquiry.
But the chief justice ruled that the task force was doing a fine job and no other probe was required. The Congress considers his rejection of a CBI probe a big blow to the investigation. Over the past year, the party's leaders have therefore undertaken protests and fasts, courted arrest and called for bandhs to push for a CBI inquiry.
"We are deeply disappointed by the high court’s verdict," said Singh. "How can the task force, which works directly under the state government, fairly probe charges against the chief minister? We demand that he step down to pave way for free and fair investigation."
The BJP says the Congress must honour the court's verdict and let the task force work without pressure. BJP spokesman and senior minister Narottam Mishra points out that Singh is levelling baseless allegations out of frustration because he had employed a battery of senior lawyers to argue in the high court and the Supreme Court for a CBI probe, but that has proven futile. Mishra claimed that the original spreadsheet was with the task force and it has handed it over to the SIT.
Cause for worry
Despite the denials, the chief minister is rattled because, for the first time, the Congress has alleged that he is directly involved in the scam and that he tampered with the evidence. At the press conference, senior lawyers KTS Tulsi and Vivek Tankha, who appeared on behalf of Singh, reiterated the Congress leaders' allegations against the chief minister.
Chouhan’s main worry is that if this scam gets publicity through the national media, the Supreme Court might take suo motu cognisance and order a CBI probe, according to sources in the BJP. He dreads the possibility of this scam harming his image the way the multi-crore Saradha scam did to that of his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee after the Supreme Court ordered a CBI probe into the chit fund fraud.
If the CBI probes the examination scam, Chouhan will become vulnerable vis-à-vis Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Although Chouhan has cautiously avoided antagonising Modi so far, the perception endures that there is a rivalry between the two men. Chouhan is seen as being in the LK Advani-Sushma Swaraj camp, which won't endear him with the prime minister.
On Monday, Chouhan was nervously keeping a tab on developments relating to the scam. The state government’s public relations machinery was in overdrive to ensure that the joint press meet did not get wide coverage. But these attempts failed and the story was splashed in media outlets across the country, deepening the crisis in Madhya Pradesh.