Obnoxious Remarks On Col. Qureshi: SC Prodding May Force CM To Decide Fate Of Mantri
A senior functionary of the ruling BJP disclosed to this newspaper here on Saturday that Mr. Yadav has been in touch with the Central party leadership on the matter and waited for a signal from the latter to act on it.
Bhopal: The supreme court’s latest warning to the Mohan Yadav government not to sit over the issue of granting sanction to prosecute his ministerial colleague Kunwar Vijay Shah, whose obnoxious remarks linking Colonel Sofya Qureshi to ‘Operation Sindoor’ put him in a tight spot, may prod chief minister Mr. Yadav into taking a final call on the ‘politically sensitive’ matter.
A senior functionary of the ruling BJP disclosed to this newspaper here on Saturday that Mr. Yadav has been in touch with the Central party leadership on the matter and waited for a signal from the latter to act on it.
“The state leadership is in favour of bailing Mr. Shah out of the current situation he is facing. This is clearly indicated from the stand taken by the state government in the supreme court on the issue by trying to convince it that the minister’s intention was to praise Col. Qureshi but he ended up giving the obnoxious statement due to lack of articulation”, the BJP leader in the know of the things said.
Initially, the minister was reportedly asked to maintain a low profile till the dust raised over the controversy settles down, but he has now started attending his office works ‘as usually’, sources said.
Sources said that the state government has consulted legal experts to explore ways to shield Mr. Shah but it is yet to find a way out to save the minister’s skin in the matter.
The minister, a tribal leader who has been winning from his Assembly constituency of Harsud (ST) in Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh consecutively for the last eight times, has often landed him in controversy by giving such statements but this time he has found himself in neck-deep in trouble with the matter being dragged to the court.
He had made some disparaging remarks against Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s wife when he was the cabinet minister in the first term of Mr. Chouhan as chief minister in the state in 2005-2008 and had to pay a price with his ministerial post for this.
Later, he was retained in his cabinet by former chief minister Mr. Chouhan when he apologized for his statement.
The controversial minister has already apologized for his statement on Col. Qureshi.
“The state government has to take a call on the matter of granting sanction to prosecute the minister following the supreme court’s latest directive. The matter can longer be delayed”, a senior minister in the Mohan Yadav government said.
