Virbhadra Singh has little moral authority
The Congress may have chosen to brazen out the allegations levelled against its Chief Minister in Himachal Pradesh, Mr Virbhadra Singh, but the party is once again on a sticky wicket with regard to the corruption issue. The overwhelming amount of evidence that has been put out in the public domain against Mr Singh, by the leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, cannot simply be brushed under the carpet. As Mr Jaitley said earlier this week, the Chief Minister and his wife accepted money to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2.4 crore, through cheques that were made out in their names, from a private power firm, which was granted an extension to complete a project by the Himachal Pradesh Government. Mr Singh's family also allegedly received other benefits from the company. Now, the Chief Minister has denied these charges and the Central Bureau of Investigation is looking into the matter. Surely, Mr Singh will have his day in court but in the meantime, few will argue that he still has the moral authority to govern especially since Mr Singh has come under the public scanner before also on graft charges. Ideally, the Congress high command should ask him to step down, especially if it wants to stand firm on the moral high ground that it has taken in recent months on all corruption issues. The irony of the fact that this political posturing comes after years of looting the national exchequer by the UPA regime notwithstanding, one can still expect that the Congress will at least now apply to its own leaders the same standards with which it has measured those from the Opposition. The party has alleged that Mr Jaitley’s decision to bring up the charges against Mr Singh at this point is a smokescreen to cover-up the return of Mr BS Yeddyurappa to the BJP’s fold. The former Karnataka Chief Minister had to leave the party and resign from his high office after corruption charges were levelled against him. These were not proven in court at the time (and remain as such, till date) but the BJP headquarters still had Mr Yeddyurappa step aside on moral grounds. What prevents 10 Janpath from insisting that Mr Singh do the sameIJ That the Congress is, instead, shielding Mr Singh only exposes its insincerity on the corruption issue.
From a narrow political perspective, the Himachal Chief Minister is an asset for the Congress. He is the only Chief Minister from that party to have ousted a BJP Government in recent years. Given the Congress’s performance in the recent Assembly polls, the party simply cannot afford to lose him. If it sacrifices him on the altar of morality, it risks losing four lok Sabha seats from Himachal Pradesh which it can ill-afford. But even protecting Mr Singh will have its own political repercussions. Apart from the fact that it will add yet another coat of corruption charges to the Congress’s already tainted record, it will also make it difficult for the party to defend its up-coming alliance with Mr lalu Prasad and his RJD. The former Chief Minister of Bihar has been convicted in the fodder scam case, cannot contest an election and is presently out of jail on bail but still commands a small but loyal vote-bank, which the Congress desperately needs.