Bihar Chief Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, yesterday declared that he would quit public life if the CBI could prove that it had placed genuine papers before the Governor to seek his sanction to prosecute him and others in the multi-crore fodder scam.
Before meeting the Governor to place his side of the picture, Yadav told newsmen that he had definite information that the CBI had duped the Governor and misled him to accord his sanction. He claimed that his case was never referred to the Attorney General and the AG had given his clearance to CBIs proposal to chargesheet him. He demanded that the Governor should make a personal inquiry into how the CBI was able to convince him to accord the sanction. He demanded to know where the letter of the Attorney General was in which the top-most legal adviser to government of India had agreed with the CBIs case against him.
Yadav lost his cool when the media persons said it had been the media that had conducted his trial for a year-and-a-half and had sullied his image. He maintained that the CBI had become a party to destabilise the duly constituted government in Bihar as it had succeeded in getting the Governors sanction by hoodwinking him.
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I am pretty sure that my case had never been referred to the Attorney General for his assent as had been promised by the Governor. The CBI should make public the letter of the AG to prosecute me, he said.
The Chief Minister parried the question regarding moving the court to seek an anticipatory bail petition or challenging the sanction accorded by the Governor to prosecute him. Its a legal matter and the decision would be taken after consulting the legal experts. Why should I disclose my strategy to the media which had launched a campaign against me.
Yadav said that he had full faith in the judiciary and would abide by the directives of the court. I do not question the authority of the Governor since he is the constitutional head but am prepared to fight the legal as well as political battle.
The Chief Minister softened his stand towards the dissidents when two members of the dissident camp, Mufti Mohammad Kasim and Mohammad Neemutullah (Both MLAs) expressed solidarity with the Chief Minister. He said that there was no dissident activity and the leaders were not in favour of breaking the party for petty political gains.
I do not consider anybody as dissident since all have contributed to the formation of Janata Dal.
Yadav admitted that he had been made the sacrificial goat as he had tried further the cause of the downtrodden.
In fact the parties that had lost the battle of ballot to him have now come together to remove him, he said.
Meanwhile, the political situation in Bihar remained fluid on Wednesday with the Chief Minister and his detractors were busy to consolidate their positions on the even of the crucial Janata Dal Legislature Party (JDLP) meet here on Sunday.
While the Chief Minister was promising moon to win over the party legislators, the dissidents appeared in no mood to retrace from their oust Laloo campaign, specially after the gubernatorial sanction to prosecute Yadav and his ministerial colleagues. The dissidents are meeting here late this evening to decide their future course of action and also if they should participate in tomorrows JDLP convened by Yadav.
The four ministers who were sacked by Yadav for attending the Sharad Yadavs function at Patna on June 6 claimed that none could stop Yadav from going to jail. Ram Jeevan Singh, the former agriculture minister said that Yadav should immediately tender his resignation after the Governors approval and added that if he (Yadav) did not do so then the Central leaders should think in terms of expelling him in the larger interest of the party.
Singh maintained that all the officials of the committee formed by the state government to probe the fraudulent withdrawal from different treasuries were languishing in jail. This proved beyond that the Chief Minister had constituted the committee not to probe the fraudulent withdrawals but to hush up the scandal. The same fate awaits the Chief Minister, he added.