The Gujarat government and the ruling BJP on Friday rejected the demand for the resignation of Minister of State for Home Amit Shah after the CBI filed a charge sheet naming him one of the co-accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
Government spokesman and Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said there was no question of Mr. Shah resigning at this stage. The CBI had only called him for questioning on the encounter because it felt that he had “knowledge” of the incident. Simply naming someone in the charge sheet would not make him guilty unless the charges were proved in court, and levelling accusations could not be made a ground for his resignation, said Mr. Vyas.
The spokesman did not find anything wrong in Mr. Shah seeking more time to appear before the CBI. “You cannot expect a Minister to be ready to respond before an investigating agency at a two-hour notice. He may be busy with some official work and there was nothing wrong if he wanted some more time to appear.”
Mr. Vyas denied that the Minister made any attempt to duck the CBI probe. “The State government and Mr. Shah are committed to cooperating in the process of law and we are always ready to do so. But it did not mean everybody should be ready at its beck and call and respond in just two hours.”
“Playing politics”
State BJP spokesman Vijay Rupani said what was happening around Mr. Shah was only a “political war.” He would have resigned had it been only on “moral grounds.” But the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre was playing politics through the CBI to defame and destabilise the Narendra Modi government, Mr. Rupani said.
State Congress president Sidhhartha Patel and Leader of the Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil said the BJP and the government would have asked Mr. Shah to resign had they had any faith in and respect for judiciary. Pointing out that the CBI was holding the Sohrabuddin case inquiry at the behest of the Supreme Court and not the UPA government, Mr. Gohil said the BJP's attempt to politicise the issue only showed its disrespect for the court.
Why was Mr. Shah trying to duck the CBI inquiry “if his hands are clean?”
Minister since 2002
A four-time BJP member of the Assembly representing Sarkhej here, Mr. Shah became Minister of State for Home after December 2002 elections and continued to hold the office even after the 2007 polls.
Mr. Shah holds nine other portfolios including independent charge of Parliamentary Affairs, besides being president of the Gujarat Chess Association and vice-president of the Gujarat Cricket Association.
