After the sensational claims by former Home Secretary RK Singh that Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde put pressure on the police to shield a businessman linked to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, the BJP has demanded that Shinde should be sacked. While Shinde has yet to react, the Congress has described Singh’s belated claims as “politically motivated.”
Deputy leader of the BJP in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said that if Shinde indeed prevented Delhi Police from taking action against a key aide of Dawood in the IPl betting scandal, then it was a serious matter which should be probed thoroughly.
“After enquiry if he (Shinde) is found to have intervened as there is contemporaneous evidence of Home Secretary saying so, he must be sacked. He has no political, moral or legal authority to remain as the Home Minister even for a moment,” Prasad said.
RK Singh who recently joined BJP, has alleged that Shinde had interfered with the probe into the betting scam and prevented Delhi Police from questioning a businessman of “shady” reputation. Prasad recalled that earlier Shinde had raked up the issue of saffron terror and had to apologise.
Attacking the former Home Secretary, Union Minister Manish Tewari questioned as to why the bureaucrat had not spoken up earlier. Tewari criticised what he said was a tendency after retirement among bureaucrats to speak out against their former bosses.
“I think it is extremely unfortunate. You have this very pernicious tendency of bureaucrats after retirement trying to make allegations in order to occupy media space,” Tewari said. If Singh, or anybody else, was really so concerned, then why was not the matter put on record while they were in service, Tewari said adding that Singh could have articulated his concerns to the Cabinet Secretary or to the Prime Minister.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh claimed the former Home Secretary had tried to get a post-retirement position from the UPA. “Shocked at the opportunistic behaviour of RK Singh, ex-HS. Why did he not bring this to the notice of the Cabinet Secretary or the PMIJ Is it not a fact that he tried to get a post-retirement position from UPAIJ Is it not a fact that he had approached Nitish (Kumar) for a positionIJ” Singh said on Twitter.
Tweeting that the charges levelled by the former Home Secretary are “extremely serious” and “shocking”, Digvijay said he (Singh) is also guilty of not fulfilling his assigned responsibility and keeping quiet during tenure.