Education minister Vinod Tawde’s troubles are adding up as Congress leaders have been coming up with new allegations against him.
Education minister Vinod Tawde’s troubles are adding up as Congress leaders have been coming up with new allegations against him. The latest has indicated how the minister has three different Director Identification Numbers (DIN) and is a director of five companies, which he did not mention in the election affidavits. DIN is like a PAN (one person can have only one number). Mr Tawde rubbished the claims made by the Congress and said he had only one DIN.
When The Asian Age checked all three numbers provided by the Congress leaders on the company affairs ministry’s website, two of them were shown to be invalid.
Congress leaders Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and Sanjay Nirupam demanded Mr Tawde’s resignation on the issue, yet again. However, Mr Tawde said he had only one DIN and the other two had lapsed.
A day ago, Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had accused Mr Tawde of using his office to make an appointment to a government committee and lending money from BJP’s party fund to a multimedia company.
“Tawde has three DINs, while Nitin Gadkari six. As per law, one person can possess only one DIN. The government of India should start criminal proceedings against the two ministers and they should resign,” Mumbai Congress president Mr Nirupam said. Mr Tawde is director at Shrirang Printers, Tawde Nalawade Buildwell Private Limited, Nashik Marine Feeds, Innovative Offshoring and Maharashtra Film Stage and Cultural Development Corporation Limited.
Pointing at the rulebook, Mr Nirupam said that it was mandatory for any person to resign within two months from any profit-making company after assuming a government post.
“Mr Tawde did not reveal information about him being director of the companies in his election affidavits. He clarified that he was just an honorary director. But the papers show that he has signed as a director on the balance sheet,” Mr Nirupam said.
Mr Chavan had alleged on Thursday that the BJP gave '25 lakh from the party funds to run a newspaper. Demanding the resignation of Mr Tawde, who is director of Shree Multimedia Vision Limited (SMVL), Mr Chavan said another director of the company, Dilip Karmbelkar, was appointed president of Vishwakosh Nirmiti Mandal (Marathi Encyclopaedia) after Mr Tawde became minister.
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik had said that his party would complain to the Election Commission (EC) against the misuse of party funds.
Demanding the resignations of the BJP leaders, leader of Opposition Mr Vikhe-Patil said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks about morality. Now he should remove both his ministers on the grounds of morality. We will fight legally against the two.”
Mr Tawde has refuted all allegations against him and said that the information accessed by the Opposition is false.
“There is only one DIN on my name and the other two lapsed long back. They do not have any issue to take up before the Budget Session and hence they are making false allegations against me,” he told reporters.
The BJP has said that it was a Congress ploy to divert attention from the National Herald issue. Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar said, “Allegations against Mr Tawde are an attempt to distract attention of the people from the National Herald case. We can also demand that Sonia and Rahul Gandhi resign as Congress president and vice-president respectively for alleged misappropriation of funds in acquiring ownership of the now-defunct daily National Herald. In that case, party funds were used and the (Gandhi) family benefited. However, in Mr Tawde’s case, the party gave the money as trade advance and there was no financial gain for the BJP or any leader.”
As far as the issue of DIN is concerned, Priyanka Gandhi, Robert Vadra and Chidambaram are already facing cases in the issue, claimed BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari.
“If you check the ministry of corporate affairs website, your will find that out of 6 DIN numbers given by the Congress for Nitin Gadkari, four have lapsed, one has expired and only one is active. Similarly, with Tawde, only one DIN is active,” he said, adding that Congress should learn to read (MCA website) properly.
A corporate governance expert said, “Many DINs were rejected or lapsed when shifting from the manual system to electronic. Also, it is possible that five different companies applied for a person as director with five DINs. However, it was made mandatory in the Companies Act 2013 to have only one DIN and surrender the rest.”
