Gujarat Congress slams Modi Govt. over Loakyukta row

Ahmedabad/New Delhi, Jan 18 (ANI): With the Gujarat High Court upholding the appointment of appointment of Justice (retired) RA Mehta as the state's Lokayukta, the Congress Party on Wednesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government-led by Narendra Modi for failing to take make its stance clear over the steps that it would undertake to combat the rampant corruption.

Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela said the dual face of the Gujarat BJP has been exposed following the decision of the High Court.

"The double standard; dual face of Gujarat BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) has been exposed. BJP is left with no morality. They take different stands on Ombudsman bill and on provincial Ombudsman each. BJP has forgotten that in Gujarat they had decided that the opposition leaders, governor and chief justice of High Court, these three people would recommend and finalise the name of Ombudsman. At that time BJP was in opposition and they used to think that in the coming days they will not come in power," he told the media in Gujarat's Ahmedabad city.

"Now that when they are in power, they say provincial Ombudsman will be decided by them and they have even removed many provisions from the commission that was made for enquiring the matter. They thought that if enquiry will take place then they will be caught red handed. So, it is proven that BJP is a tainted party, corrupt party," he added.

Vaghela further said the Modi Government should now accept their mistakes instead of deciding to move to the Supreme Court.

"It is clear that Gujarat CM (Modi) will be out on charges of corruption. I feel that if BJP has some moral then they should not get involved in all these things, whosoever is the Ombudsman, they should not move to Supreme Court and they should also not hide other scandals. Everything should come out in the open," he said.

Gujarat Congress Committee in-charge, Mohan Prakash, also lashed out at the Modi Government for misleading the nation on the issue of corruption.

"Bharatiya Janata Party should apologise to the whole nation because they have mislead the whole country. The whole representative delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party visited the President on the issue of Ombudsman Bill, they disrupted the proceedings of the Parliament, they demanded that the Governor (Kamla Beniwal) should be called back and today with the decision pronounced by the High court, the Bharatiya Janata Party has been unmasked in front of the whole country," Praksh told the media in New Delhi.

"As far as politics is concerned, the representatives of Bharatiya Janata Party take out processions against corruption across the country and on the other hand the provincial ombudsman who is appointed for uprooting corruption; that post is lying vacant in Gujarat from last eight years and to prevent its appointment they are moving to court," he added.

The Narendra Modi Government will now appeal against this verdict in the Supreme Court.

The spokesperson of Gujarat Government, Jai Narayan Vyas, earlier today said the appeal would be made as the High Court had dismissed their plea.

the Gujarat High Court earlier in the day upheld the appointment of Lokayukta by the Governor while dismissing the plea of the state challenging it.odi had accused the Governor of acting in a partisan manner and trying to destabilise the state government.

The Gujarat Government had earlier challenged Governor Kamla Beniwal's decision to appoint Mehta as state's Lokayukta, deeming the move unconstitutional and unilateral.

Justice (retired) RA Mehta was appointed as Lokayukta in August last year by Governor Beniwal. The post was lying vacant since November 2003. (ANI)