Rahul Gandhi's disapproval of Maharashtra government's rejection of Adarsh housing scam report today triggered a demand by the state's BJP unit that Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan resign with his remarks also dubbed as a command performance of "hypocrisy".
NCP, Congress's coalition partner at the Centre and in Maharashtra, said it would back Chavan if he reversed the state Cabinet decision to reject the report of the Adarsh probe commission in which four former Congress Chief Ministers have been indicted.
"Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has been castigated by Rahul Gandhi over the decision to reject the Adarsh Commission's report. Hence, Chavan should resign," said leader of opposition in Legislative Council Vinod Tawde.
"Even Congress' ally NCP has criticised Chavan for taking the decision," Tawde said. "Now the Congress high command has expressed disapproval about Chavan's decision. The Adarsh panel has also indicted Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde. Now let us see what action is initiated against him," the BJP leader said.
Besides Shinde, the other chief ministers indicted in the Adarsh report are Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar, Ashok Chavan and late Vilasrao Deshmukh.
BJP's deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said Gandhi's "hypocrisy" of talking about corruption occasionally will not help his party in the Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition party said Gandhi being an important functionary of the ruling Congress cannot absolve himself of the "shames" of this government by claiming to be an "outsider", and cannot escape accountability of its wrong- doings which he could have prevented had he chosen to do so.
"Rahul Gandhi's utterances are a command performance of hypocrisy.... Now when elections are approaching, this occasional detachment from the shames of the government is not going to make any impact," Prasad told PTI.
He lamented that even though Gandhi is a very significant decision-maker of this government and can even call an Ordinance a "non-sense", he has "always maintained a conspicuous silence" over a series of corruption in his government.
Prasad also said that Gamdhi did not stop the Adarsh scam report from being rejected.
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik while saying that NCP would back Chavan if he reversed his decision to reject the report said that Maharashtra Congress should identify those who were responsible for putting it in a spot over the report.
