The Congress on Wednesday demanded that the Centre should also be pro-active in cases related to Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Ram Shankar Katheria just like the way it has done in the case of former law Minister of Delhi Jitneder Tomar. “The way they have proceeded against Tomar, they should do likewise against Irani and Katheria,” AICC spokesman Ajay Maken said at the AICC briefing.
Detractors of Irani have accused the HRD Minister of giving wrong information about her educational qualifications whereas Katheria is facing a marksheet forgery case. Irani was alleged to have provided contradictory affidavits of her educational qualifications to the Election Commission. Katheria though has been discharged from charges of forging his marksheet by Agra court in April this year.
A case was filed in 2010 against Katheria in Allahabad high court by his rival BSP candidate, Kunwar Chand Wakil, charging him with forging his marksheet. At that time, the HC had referred the matter to the session court in Agra. Maken, who is also the Delhi PCC Chief, demanded that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should quit in the wake of the arrest of Tomar. Maken faulted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for doing precious little to promote transparency and accountability in the Government despite getting a huge mandate from the people of Delhi.
Meanwhile, former Union Minister P Chidambaram took a dig at the Centre over the developments in Delhi. “Orders & counter orders of Delhi CM & lG (read Union Government) are fine examples of Acche din, and maximum governance!”, Chidambaram said in a tweet.