Reacting to media reports that the CBI has summoned him regarding the sting CD episode, former Chief Minister Harish Rawat said stoically on Thursday that he did not mind being sent to the jail under handcuffs.
“But the CBI has done things in undue haste. They should not have asked me to be present before them on May 9 as the floor test is likely to be held the same day at the behest of the court. However, I am prepared to go to the jail,” he said, adding that he was yet to receive the CBI summons. He further said he would extend full cooperation to the CBI after the floor test is over.
The sting CD showed him as purportedly offering plum portfolios to the rebels in a bid to buy them back to the party folds. He even was heard as saying that he would choose to look the other way when the Minister (meaning Harak Singh Rawat) would spirit away money from the Government coffers. The Centre took a serious note of the CD and played it to the full in hastening things towards the dismissal of the Harish Rawat Ministry and promulgation of the President's Rule.
Observers say that wily Harish Rawat would love to land in jail as he knows that it would lend his image a martyr's halo. "The Centre seeming desperate to corner him on the sting CD might prove counter-productive for the BJP in case things are taken to the logical conclusion of sending him to the jail. This is what he is looking forward to, enmeshed as he is in a grim crisis that threatens his survival in the realm of State politics," an analyst said.
In a no-holds-barred attack on the BJP, Rawat said that the saffron party would go down in the history of Uttarakhand for pioneering three things - defection, President's Rule and the advent of the CBI. "Dehradun has now turned into a pilgrimage centre for the BJP leaders. They are shuttling from Delhi to Dehradun during the night hours. They arrive stealthily when it is night and they leave stealthily when it is midnight. Their fondness for darkness is significant," Rawat said.
launching a salvo at the saffron bloc for its attempts to buy MlAs for staggering amounts of money, the ex-CM said that reports of the price of an MlA standing at Rs 50 cr were reaching them. "It is said that the money is being transacted through a particular bank. I am not sure whether the reports are true or not," he said. He expressed surprise over the BJP taking the CD to the High Court. "The case pending now before the Supreme Court, the Centre has roped in the CBI to hasten things. Their intention is clear. It is to influence the judgment of the Supreme Court," he said.
"The Supreme Court giving enough indication that they are for a floor test, the Centre should have waited. It seems to be in a tearing hurry and that is why it has unleashed the CBI on me," Rawat said.
He said that he would leave things to the court of the people to pronounce the final judgment on him.