The Legislative Council witnessed pandemonium on Monday over allegations of corruption against several ministers.
The Legislative Council witnessed pandemonium on Monday over allegations of corruption against several ministers. Each of the nine ministers against whom the Opposition has levelled charges of corruption gave individual explanations in the House and dismissed the Opposition’s claims. FDA minister Girish Bapat even said that he would not only resign from politics but also from life itself if it were proved that he had indulged in any corrupt practice. However, the Opposition was not satisfied with the explanations and demanded inquiries into all the allegations.
For the first time, the ministers facing corruption allegations personally gave clarifications one by one. Mr Bapat, who was the first one to speak, said that he was not perturbed by the allegations since he had done nothing wrong. He has been facing flak from the Opposition for the rising prices of pulses. In his reply, Mr Bapat said that the prices had increased because production has dropped for three consecutive years, and also spelt out the steps taken by his department to avoid such situations in the future.
“I have nothing to fear. If even a single charge is proved against me, I will retire not only from politics, but also from life,” Mr Bapat said.
Education minister Vinod Tawde, women and child welfare minister Pankaja Munde, health minister Deepak Sawant and minister of state for housing Ravindra Waikar were also among the nine ministers who replied to the charges. They all claimed that the Opposition has levelled baseless allegations on the basis of unverified media reports.
But the Opposition was not satisfied with the replies. Leader of the Opposition Dhananjay Munde said, “We have given all the proof for the allegations we have made. We are not even seeking resignations from the ministers. What we have demanded is that there should be investigations into all these allegations. But the government is not ready to conduct the same. We will not allow any business to take place until the government announces the investigations either by a sitting high court judge or the CBI or CID or SIT.”
