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Is Modi shielding Sheila Dikshit?

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The ongoing tussle between Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and BJP at the centre was followed with a new scam. Recently, AAP was attacked over the appointment of 21 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries, there after they trained its guns at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for shielding former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit over the alleged 400 crore water tanker scam. A political war of words erupted soon after between the BJP and AAP. Both traded charges of trying to cover up the scam.

AAP leader Dilip Pandey accused BJP of being an ally of the Congress Party.  Three days after the AAP government announced it had sent the report of a fact-finding committee on water tankers distribution management systems scam to the Lieutenant Governor and the Centre, so the report has been forwarded to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) for investigation. Trouble mounted for the former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit when a report of a fact-finding panel on the alleged 400-crore water tanker scam linking her, was forwarded to anti-graft agency Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) by Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung for further investigation.

The report by a committee of the Delhi Jal Board was sent to Jung by the AAP government for probe by either CBI or Delhi’s ACB following persistent demand by the city BJP leader Vijender Gupta. Jung has also forwarded to ACB a complaint filed with him by Gupta accusing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of “suppressing” the committee’s report into the tanker scam for 11 months. Last week, the AAP Government had made the committee’s report public after Gupta demanded from Kejriwal in Delhi Assembly to do the same, as he filed three different FIRs against the people involved in this scam including Madam Dikshit. He alleged instead of cancelling tenders issued by the previous government, the AAP government chose to continue with the wrongdoers, “thereby perpetuating the crime”.

AAP hit back alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to protect Sheila Dikshit. As the anti-corruption bureau and CBI come directly under him what stopped him from acting against Sheila Dikshit for so long? The “tanker scam” relates to allegations that cropped up between 2008 and 2011, the Congress government led by Sheila Dikshit bypassed the rules and caused losses worth crores while awarding tenders for water tankers at much higher rates to undeserving companies. Dikshit was the chief minister of Delhi for three straight terms between from 1998 to 2013. Her meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi sparked speculation that she could be fielded by the party as its chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh, where elections will be held next year.

Sheila Dikshit said the allegations being levelled against her are ‘politically motivated’. She said she is absolutely clean, all due procedures were followed, also dared AAP and BJP government to find out the facts before targeting her. Even today, those tankers are being used. It was for the service of the people of Delhi. Where does the question of scam come into picture?

The decisions regarding Jal board were taken collectively, including the CEOs, BJP members, MCD members. Everyone took the decision collectively. And why was the report sent to the ACB, only the Lieutenant Governor and Kejriwal should answer this. The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) will probe the former Delhi chief minister for her alleged role in the water tanker scam. Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party Government had in June last year constituted a fact-finding committee to probe the irregularities in hiring some 385 stainless steel water tankers by the Delhi Jal Board in 2012 during the Congress’ rule.

Many times, AAP and BJP just alleged Congress and its leaders for corruption but none of them ever acted against these charges or dared to file an FIR or gone against any leader. No one knows when and how this war of words will come into practical and action will be taken against culprits, be it Sonia Gandhi, Robert Vadra or Sheila Dikshit, Aam Aadmi party and Narendra Modi randomly attacked them but never took any action against the alleged crime that they mentioned in their public speeches. Now, the time has come where these leaders are hardly taken seriously by people or anyone is buying the corruption allegations against Congress. Maybe this foolishness of present government gives fair chance to Congress in upcoming elections.

 (Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

 

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Vaidehi Taman
Vaidehi Tamanhttps://authorvaidehi.com
Vaidehi Taman an Accredited Journalist from Maharashtra is bestowed with three Honourary Doctorate in Journalism. Vaidehi has been an active journalist for the past 21 years, and is also the founding editor of an English daily tabloid – Afternoon Voice, a Marathi web portal – Mumbai Manoos, and The Democracy digital video news portal is her brain child. Vaidehi has three books in her name, "Sikhism vs Sickism", "Life Beyond Complications" and "Vedanti". She is an EC Council Certified Ethical Hacker, OSCP offensive securities, Certified Security Analyst and Licensed Penetration Tester that caters to her freelance jobs.
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