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Congress attacks Shekhawat |
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Faced with the BJP onslaught on Pratibha Patil, the Congress also appears to have gone on the offensive to attack Shekhawat’s credentials.
Congress spokesperson Mohan Prakash said in Jaipur, “Shekhawat should step down as Vice President as he has chosen to remain in the fray for the Presidential election.” He said, “the post of Vice President is a constitutional post which should not be politicised or sullied in any manner through campaigns.”
On Friday, July 6, the Congress questioned Shekhawat’s decision to join the police force under the British Raj in 1942 when the country was in the thick of the Quit India Movement.
“When people left behind everything to join the freedom struggle responding to Mahatma Gandhi’s call, Shekhawat thought it fit to be part of the repressive colonial police,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.
“No one knows whose ideology motivated him but the fact remains that he left the force only when India became independent,” he said, urging Shekhawat or his campaign managers to explain this part of his past now that he was contesting for the highest constitutional position.
If that wasn’t enough, Singhvi challenged Shekhawat to “come clean” on the compensation scam involving his son-in-law which had caused a furore in the Rajasthan Assembly when Shekhawat was the Chief Minister. “Those living in glass houses must not throw stones,” the spokesman said, claiming that Shekhawat’s statement in the Assembly about a CBI probe into the scam was misleading. The Centre had to clarify that the State Government did not recommend a CBI probe, he said.
“The BJP has been hurling allegations about Pratibha Patil’s relations, but these facts seek to indict Shekhawat directly,” he said.
Responding to the charges against Shekhawat, Sushma Swaraj said, he joined the police force in 1942 and resigned as sub-inspector in 1948.
“As far as his character is concerned, he has been in public life since 1952. All of those 55 years have been an open book. Today, he is the seniormost living legislator,” Swaraj, who is the spokesperson of the Presidential candidate, said in New Delhi on July 6.
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