Minister's Mandsaur U-turn leaves Congress red-faced

BHOPAL: Congress on Tuesday scrambled to control the damage done by the U-turn party ministers made in the assembly a day earlier on the highly sensitive Mandsaur police firing case and planting of 6 crore saplings under the Shivraj Singh Chouhan administration, in which Congress had earlier alleged irregularities.
On Monday, home minister Bala Bachahan said in assembly that police opened fire in Mandsaur “following standard procedure norms, in self-defence”.And forest minister Umang Singhar said there were no financial irregularities in the planting of saplings along Narmada’s banks, practically a clean chit to Chouhan’s government.
Congress had attacked BJP relentlessly on both issues during campaign for the assembly polls. After the about-turn, BJP hit out at Congress for “misguiding the state for political gain”.
CM Kamal Nath on Tuesday stepped in to try and save face. Sources in Congress told TOI Bachchan and Singhar will have to clarify their stand before party chief Rahul Gandhi. Nath made it clear his government has “resolved to ensure punishment to those involved in corruption and scams”. “We will neither spare those who shot farmers in Mandsaur, nor relieve those involved in the Narmada planting scam. We will also not spare those responsible for financial fraud during Simhastha… we have resolved to see this through,” he tweeted.
Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh was scathing in his criticism of Singhar and Bachchan. “It is surprising the home and forest ministers gave a sort of clean chit to the previous BJP government. The home minister in his reply justified police firing on farmers, which is not acceptable to us. The forest minister replied there was no corruption in mass tree plant drive on Narmada’s banks. I walked 3,100km along the riverbank, how much has he walked? There was big corruption. What was the need for the forest minister to defend BJP?” asked Digvijaya.
Reacting to Congress’s self-goals, state BJP accused ministers of lying, saying no matter what the ministers say now, their statements in the assembly would be considered official. “The ministers had spoken the truth in the House on both the Narmada drive and Mandsaur firing. Now, they are openly lying,” said BJP’s Gopal Bhargava.