BHOPAL: His marriage anniversary on Friday seems to have brought good tidings for chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. And call it a coincidence if you will, two pieces of great news came back-to-back for Chouhan after his government gave the status of juridical person to ‘Narmada Maiya’ on Wednesday.
On the same day, the CBI, which is investigating the mega Vyapam scam told the Supreme Court that it would ‘take action’ against Digvijay Singh and Gwalior-based whistle-blower Prashant Pandey for running a campaign against Chouhan based on ‘falsehoods and forged evidence’.
The duo had claimed in a petition filed before the SC in 2015 that the state police’s STF, which was probing the Vyapam scam before the CBI took it over, had tampered with a computer hard disk seized by Indore police in 2013. The CFSL, on examination, had found both the hard disk and the pen drive submitted by Singh and Pandey not tampered with.
Digvijay Singh had alleged that the digital data was tinkered with to remove the evidence of involvement of Chouhan and his family members, including his wife, in the scam. He had also questioned the credibility of the tests run on the hard disk and the pen drive by Bangalore-based Truth Lab.
Chouhan tried to defend himself from the barrage of charges with responses ranging from the emotional (I-will-take-sanyas-from-politics) to legal (filed a defamation case against Congress spokesperson K.K. Mishra) to a perceived retaliatory action (State police filed a criminal case against Digvijay Singh for his making illegal appointments to Vidhan Sabha Secretariat).
But the CBI clean chit has put paid to Diggi’s efforts to put Chouhan in the dock. A day after the CBI affidavit, three ministers drove to the office of the premier investigation agency here, demanding registration of case against Digvijay Singh, though Shivraj himself refrained from coming out with any reaction.
Although Digvijay Singh it trying to put up a brave face (I will continue to fight corruption, he tweeted) but it is clear that he is fighting a losing battle. Significantly, no Congress leader of consequence has risen in his defence.
On Friday came another piece of good news for Shivraj. With seven cities from the state figuring in the top 25 cleanest cities and 34 in top 100, the chief minister has ample reason to feel proud. And the cherry on the cake is that the two top slots are occupied by cities from the state.
What makes the achievement even more important is that almost all of the municipal bodies which have won the recognition are controlled by the BJP. Clearly, these are ‘acche din’ for Bhaiya.
