Tomar row: Congress asks Centre to act against Irani, Katheria

New Delhi: Latching on to the arrest of former Delhi Minister Jitender Tomar, Congress on Wednesday demanded that Centre should also be pro-active in cases related to Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Ram Shankar Katheria. “The way they have proceeded against Tomar, they should do likewise against Irani and Katheria,” party spokesman Ajay Maken said in reply to a volley of questions from reporters. [caption id=“attachment_2289500” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. PTI[/caption] Detractors of Irani have accused the HRD Minister of giving wrong information about her educational qualifications whereas Katheria is facing a marksheet forgery case. Irani was alleged to have provided contradictory affidavits of her educational qualifications to the Election Commission. Maken, who is also the Delhi PCC Chief, demanded that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should quit in the wake of the arrest of Tomar. This, he claimed, was necessary as the issue of Tomar’s “fake” law degree was raised inside AAP before the Assembly elections, but Kejriwal had ignored it. Tomar was not only given the AAP ticket, but was also made a Minister by Kejriwal despite knowing fully well the charges against him. Maken faulted Kejriwal for doing precious little to promote transparency and accountability in the government despite getting a huge mandate from the people of Delhi. Recalling that Kejriwal had last time resigned as Chief Minister after 49 days in power citing his failure to bring the Jan Lokpal bill, but now he has not acted over the matter. Besides, he said that there has been no Lokayukta in Delhi for long, but Kejriwal has not cared to fill the post till now. He noted that Kejriwal had also removed L Ramdas who was working as the internal Lokpal in AAP. Earlier in the day, scores of protesters led by the Maken and senior party leader PC Chacko marched towards the Delhi Secretariat demanding the resignation of Kejriwal. Meanwhile, former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram took a dig at the Centre over the developments in Delhi. “Orders & counter orders of Delhi CM & LG (read Union government) are fine examples of Acche din, and maximum governance !”, Chidambaram said in a tweet. Another party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi wondered through a tweet: “Is the delhi law minister post jinxed? First Somnath Bharati now TOMAR!”. The obvious reference was Bharati forced to resign as Law Minister during the first stint of AAP in power in the wake of a controversy. “Forged BSC degree, forged LLB degree, fake marksheet. And Mr Tomar & AAP expected soft treatement?”, Singhvi said attacking AAP in another tweet. PTI