PEB scam: No resignation yet, MP Governor Ram Naresh Yadav keeps all guessing

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav kept everyone guessing on Thursday after the media jumped the gun to announce his resignation. The Raj Bhavan maintained a stoic silence over the issue after sources close to the governor suggested that he might like to meet President Pranab Mukherjee before taking a call in the matter. He is expected back in Bhopal on Saturday to finally decide the next course of action. The Centre has already asked him to resign over his alleged involvement in MPPEB forest guard scam after the FIR filed by the Special Task Force investigating the matter. The Centre’s resignation call came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh discussed the issue on Wednesday. The Centre has decided against precipitating the issue apparently to avoid opening up another front while still dealing with stiff resistance in Parliament over a host of ordinances. The UPA government had under similar circumstances in 2009 sacked the Karnataka governor N D Tewari within 24 hours of an FIR filed against him for moral turpitude. Yadav had another governor empathising with him on Wednesday. The Mizoram Governor Aziz Qureshi, who moved the court against the Centre’s pressure to put in papers, happened to be in hometown Bhopal. Yadav and Qureshi confabulated over the issue. Yadav also has options open to move the High Court to quash the FIR under section 482 if he can manage to back his plea with proof of innocence. Yadav apparently wants to buy time to avoid instant arrest on his resignation. The STF is under pressure to arrest him because there are nearly 100 others whose names figure in the FIR. Since many others named in the FIR have not been arrested so far Yadav need not worry about instant arrest, say legal experts. The colossal scam involves politicians and senior government officials in the admission and recruitment racket. Over 1800 arrests have been made in the past couple of years. The Governor’s role came under the scanner after his Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Dhanraj Yadav was arrested for pushing some names for clearing the Pre-Medical Test (PMT). Yadav’s son Shailesh was also in the net when an accused alleged he received money for recruitment of contractual teachers. The governor later disowned involvement in his son’s activities. [caption id=“attachment_2124121” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Ram Naresh Yadav. IBN7[/caption]In Delhi, Yadav attended the marriage reception hosted by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s families. He had not got an appointment with the President till Thursday. He plans to meet the senior Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi. It will be surprising if gets a reprieve from the party especially when the Congress has taken to streets in Bhopal seeking his removal. In Bhopal Madhya Pradesh assembly’s budget session was abruptly adjourned sine die on Thursday, 29 days ahead of schedule amid noisy scenes over the scam. In a rare instance the state’s 2015-16 budget was passed by voice vote without any discussion. There was curiosity on when the governor signs the notification approving the adjournment of the assembly session. The Opposition wanted the House to seek a legal opinion in the matter. The ruling BJP thus wriggled out of a discussion on the PEB scam after an aggressive Congress opposition claimed to have found more evidence to suggest chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his family’s involvement in the scam. The Congress has been insisting that Chouhan has got names of the governor and other ministers included in the list to deflect the charges against him. Union minister Uma Bharti whose name also figures in the documents presented by the Congress along with some other senior leaders had earlier demanded CBI inquiry into the scam. With the heat rising, the Centre would like to go along with the opinion. Chouhan doesn’t enjoy the best of equations with Modi, Bharti and Rajnath Singh. An advocate filed a complaint with the STF, apparently at the behest of the ruling party, to seek action against former chief minister Digvijaya Singh and the man behind the latest charges against Chouhan. The FIR was registered against the Governor after the Madhya Pradesh High Court division bench comprising Chief Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Alok Aradhe ruled “the STF is free to proceed against the high dignitary.”