It’s murder of my dignity, says ousted MP minister Babulal Gaur

Veteran of a dozen Assembly elections, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Babulal Gaur, poured his heart out after being removed from the Shivraj Singh Chouhan ministry “unceremoniously”, saying that “the Delhi leadership has murdered my dignity”.

“Do the children drive their parents out of house because they are old Do I deserve the way I was asked to resign without prior notice I am not absolutely worried over being dropped from the ministry, but I am hurt for the manner I was asked to tender my resignation at the last minute without prior information,” he told reporters on Saturday.

“The Delhi leadership has murdered my dignity by treating me in such a manner,” 86-year-old Mr Gaur, a former Jansangh leader, added.

Mr Gaur, who had been a home minister in the state, along with state PWD minister Sartaz Singh (76), were sacked from the ministry for crossing the age bar of 75 fixed by the Central party leadership to serve in the government, barely a few minutes before Mr Chouhan expanded his ministry here on Thursday.

“This is not the BJP I know”, the octogenarian leader who had won the Govindapura Assembly elections in Bhopal ten times in a row, said, adding, “Politics has become business now”.

“What I am today is because of my party. Party gave a lot to me from, from making me a Cabinet minister to CM,” he added.

What else could I have got ” he observed.

The other sacked minister, Mr Singh also felt the same way.

“This was the most improper way of asking a veteran leader to go”, he reportedly told the chief minister Mr Chouhan who had invited him for tea in the latter’s official bungalow on Friday morning apparently to mollify him.