MEGHALAYA:
Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote to the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) asking the agency to question Union Home Minister Amit Shah on his “categorical” assertion that the Conrad Sangma-led MDA 1 government in Meghalaya was the most corrupt in the country.
Ramesh tweeted, “… That of course did not prevent BJP from supporting the same Conrad Sangma again.”
As per the letter sent to the CBI director on March 21, Ramesh said that the Home Minister would surely have access to information and facts that led him to the above conclusion.
“For some inexplicable reasons, the Home Minister has failed to act upon the information regarding the corrupt practices and instances of the then Meghalaya government,” the letter read.
The Congress leader has urged the CBI director to summon Amit Shah and ask him to submit all the information and facts that led him to make that assessment.
Ramesh also urged the CBI to investigate if the Home Minister of India was under any undue duress from his party – BJP or other forces, “to suppress the information related to the corruption of Meghalaya, in order to enable the BJP to support the same chief minister after the recent Meghalaya elections.”
In one of his election campaigns in Meghalaya in February this year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah called Meghalaya the most corrupt state in the country, a remark that did not go well with the many political leaders who felt that such statements ruin the reputation of the state and asked the union home minister to order an inquiry into the alleged corruption in the state, if any.