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Former minister of state for home Amit Shah allegedly involved in illegal snooping on a woman, on Wednesday skipped an event where he was a special invitee while Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was the chief guest. The event was for opening of new building of Gujarat State Cooperative Bank where Shah is a director. Meanwhile, Modi, without naming Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), took a dig at the co-operative giant over number of litigations filed amid ongoing boardroom drama at GCMMF, which owns and markets Amul brand.
Following the snooping controversy this was the first event that Modi and his close aide Shah were likely to share stage. But, Shah did not turn up for the event despite he being special invitee for the event. All the invitation cards and print advertisements had Amit Shah as as special invitee and Modi as chief guest.
However, sources said that Shah could not make it to the event since the national general secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was occupied in preparations of Modi's upcoming rallies in Varanasi and Dehradun in the second half of December.
Two investigative news portals 'Cobrapost' and 'Gulail.com' had alleged on November 15 that Shah, a close aide of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had ordered illegal surveillance of a woman at the behest of one 'Saheb'. They had also released taped audio conversations between Shah and Singhal to support their claims. The alleged snooping of a woman has become a major political controversy involving close aide of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Following the controversy Gujarat government last week constituted a two-member commission of inquiry, headed by a retired Gujarat High Court judge Sugna Bhatt and having former additional chief secretary K C Kapoor as member. It will probe the alleged snooping of a woman architect by the state police at the behest of former minister of state for Amit Shah in 2009, and submit report in three months.
During today's event members of the Congress Women's wing did slogan shouting demanding proper investigation in the snooping controversy outside the venue of the event. They were also carrying placards against Modi and Shah.
Meanwhile, taking a dig at the recent court cases by various members of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), better known as Amul, Modi quipped that by and large it was probably the co-operative sector that made the most number of rounds to the court offices. Modi's remark came at a time when GCMMF chairman Vipul Chaudhary was present on the stage.
"Two co-operative members can be seen fighting within themselves. So many litigations are on within the co-operative sector. It could be understood if one had to go to the court due to non-payment of dues. Instead, now litigations happen on issues like whether the meeting was held or not, was everybody present in the meeting or not, were the signatures true or not," Modi said.
Modi took the dig while suggesting a separate independent election commission within the co-operative sector.
