Without taking Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddurappa’s name, BJP President Nitin Gadkari said voices were being raised to take action against him, but the Congress feels there is no reason to act in the case of Sheila Dikshit.
The Delhi Chief Minister has been criticised by the Lokayukta for irregularities in some Commonwealth Games projects and more recently for “misrepresenting” facts regarding construction of low-cost flats.
“When the report is against the Opposition, action should be taken, but the Delhi Lokayukta file goes to the President... and still the party (Congress) feels there is no need for action,” Mr. Gadkari said.
Both the Congress and the Delhi chief minister have rejected BJP’s comparison between Ms. Dikshit and her Karnataka counterpart, saying it was not a graft case like that of B.S. Yeddyurappa.
Soon after Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde submitted his report indicting Mr. Yeddyurappa for mining scams, the Congress demanded the chief minister’s resignation on moral grounds.
Mr. Gadkari lashed out at the Congress for downplaying the Shunglu Committee report which has criticised Delhi government over the Commonwealth Games. The ruling party argues that it was only a fact-finding committee and not a statutory body like Lokayukta, he said.
Alleging step-motherly treatment to non-Congress ruled States, he said “financial discrimination” against them by the Centre affected their good governance and cited examples of Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh besides Punjab, where BJP has alliance with SAD.
Castigating the UPA government for the action against yoga guru Ramdev at the Ramlila grounds in Delhi, Mr. Gadkari said now they were bent upon stalling Anna Hazare’s scheduled indefinite fast from August 16. Veiled threats were being issued to Mr. Hazare to terrorise him to withdraw his proposed protest, he said.
“Does he (Hazare) not have a right to speak and register protest?” he posed.
Charging the UPA with usurping powers of the state, he said the Congress-led coalition “is challenging democratic system in the country and not just the federal structure.” Mr. Gadkari also slammed the role of Governors, alleging that they were acting like political agents of the UPA government.
“Deliberate attempts are being made to negate the plans and programmes of the BJP governments,” he said, adding several bills passed by state assemblies have not been given assent by the governors in non-Congress ruled States.
He said the governors were neither rejecting nor accepting these legislations, thereby diluting the federal structure of the Constitution “at the behest of UPA.”
Giving an example of “discrimination”, he said while Maharashtra’s case is accepted, Gujarat’s anti-terror legislation it is brushed under the carpet and when something went wrong, the States are blamed saying law and order is a State subject.
Mr. Gadkari accused the Centre of misusing investigative agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation to “blackmail” political opponents.
“The CBI is becoming Congress Bureau of Investigation. I want to ask that why affidavit was twice changed in the case against (BSP chief) Mayawati in the Supreme Court,” he said.
Mr. Gadkari was presiding over ‘Regional Conference on Policies of UPA — A Threat to Indian Federalism’ organised by BJP’s Legal and Legislative Cell here. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Himachal Pradesh counterpart Prem Kumar Dhumal were also present.