Even as the anti-corruption agitation gained momentum in Gujarat, the Narendra Modi government in a bid to blunt the Congress counter-attack on Wednesday appointed a judicial commission to probe all charges of corruption against it.
Announcing the Cabinet's decision, Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said retired judge of the Supreme Court, Justice M.B. Shah, would be the one-man commission and its terms and conditions included inquiry into all the 15 of the 17 charges levelled by the Congress in a memorandum submitted to the President of India a few months back.
Mr. Vyas said the two charges had not been included because the cases were sub judice and the commission would also have the jurisdiction to probe all kinds of concessions granted to the industrial houses by the successive governments since 1980.
The commission, he said, was expected to submit its report by December 31, 2012. Incidentally, the Assembly elections are also due in December, next year.
The Congress, however, strongly reacted to the announcement of the judicial inquiry commission and said it was a ploy by the Modi government to escape investigation by a Lokayukta, the appointment of which the State government was blocking for the last seven years.
“It is clear that an investigation by a Lokayukta would have ended in severe jail terms. It is only to avoid a Lokayukta investigation and to fool the public that the government appointed the inquiry commission without being asked by anyone,” State Congress president Arjun Modhvadia, said.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil said the appointment of the commission was an “indirect admission of guilt” by the Modi government and was to escape investigation by a Lokayukta.
Giving examples of functioning of several judicial inquiry commissions which dragged on for years without any result, Mr. Gohil said the government hoped that the M.B. Shah commission would help sweeping the charges of corruption against the Chief Minister and other ministers “under the carpet.”
