Social activist and India Against Corruption leader Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh make his stand clear on the continuance of Law Minister Salman Khurshid in the Union Cabinet in the wake of charges that a Trust run by his wife and chaired by him had forged documents to misappropriate funds meant for disabled persons.
Following Mr. Khurshid’s press conference on Sunday, in which the Law Minister presented photos as evidence that his Trust had conducted camps to distribute equipment to disabled persons, Mr. Kejriwal said the photos pertained to a different time frame. His allegations pertained to 2009-10, while the photos were of the financial year 2010-11.Mr. Kejriwal said it was the duty of Dr. Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to break their silence and tell the country what their stand was on the issue. “If the people think that there is no need for Mr. Khurshid’s resignation, then in the 2014 Lok sabha election we will field a disabled person against him.”
Mr. Kejriwal said the people would force Mr. Khurshid’s resignation as well as that of the government in the Lok Sabha election.
Referring to Mr. Khurshid’s readiness for an enquiry, Mr. Kejriwal said it would not serve any purpose till the former was removed from the Cabinet and, along with his wife, arrested. He charged that both of them were powerful enough to mutilate evidence.
Mr. Kejriwal alleged that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav seemed to be hand-in-glove with Mr. Khurshid and sought to bail him out in return for relief in the CBI cases against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The IAC leader said the government’s documents had proved the irregularities and any fresh probe could only serve to destroy the documents.
He promised to produce differently-abled persons whose names were among the beneficiaries but were not given any equipment.
The IAC’s supporters staged a demonstration demanding Mr. Khurshid’s resignation at the IGI airport, to meet the Minister on his arrival from London. They also staged marched with disabled persons.
Published - October 14, 2012 11:17 pm IST
