Whistleblower Khemka a BJP stooge: Congress - Times of India

NEW DELHI: With Haryana cadre IAS officer Ashok Khemka dragging the land deals of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra into adverse spotlight once again and giving political rivals an opening, the Congress dismissed the "whistleblower" bureaucrat as a BJP stooge. "I feel BJP has a role behind it. BJP is politicizing the issue. This man is playing into the hands of BJP," Congress spokesperson Meem Afzal said, emphasizing that the BJP had reacted to the charge made by Khemka against party chief's controversial son-in-law. "What is surprising is that when he gives an interview to TV channels, and BJP immediately endorses his stand. It clearly shows that the BJP is behind all this," Afzal said. The angry response followed BJP's demand for a probe into Khemka's charge that Vadra falsified documents to earn premium on a sale of land to realty major DLF, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) seized upon the issue to get even with the Congress for havi ng targeted the Akhilesh Yadav government in the Durga Shakti Nagpal case. A gleeful SP member of Rajya Sabha, Naresh Agarwal, sought to embarrass the Congress by citing the latter's charge against Khemka as an endorsement of his own party's case against Nagpal, who was forced out as the SDM of Gautam Buddh Nagar and placed under suspension after she ordered a crack down on illegal sand mining in her jurisdiction. The Congress chief had taken up cudgels for Nagpal in an intervention that riled SP leadership which maintains that the young SDM had to be suspended since she had allegedly fanned communal tension. On Saturday, the SP used the Congress's charge to get back at the latter by drawing a parallel between the cases of Khemka and Nagpal and arguing that they symbolize the trend of individual IAS officer turning rogue. "Everyone seems to be trigger happy. How is this possible? There are service rules; officers cannot talk to the press. The indiscip line is growing. How will we run our state administrations?" Agarwal asked. The show of solidarity, however, did not amuse the Congress which insisted that cases of Khemka and Nagpal were different. "An attempt is being made to draw a parallel between this issue and that of Durga Shakti Nagpal in UP, which is wrong," Afzal argued. To buttress his contention, he cited: "Unlike Durga Shakti who is following the rules and has not gone to media, this man ( Khemka) is giving interviews to TV channels." He demanded that chief ministers should be given more powers to curb indiscipline among officials. "Else, I agree with senior leader Ramgopal Yadav that IAS officers should be sent back to Delhi and states should run their administrations with provincial service officers," Agarwal said. Demanding a probe into Khemka's charge of forgery against Vadra, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, "The documents that have come in public domain show it is a serious issue. Congress owes an explanation. When there is a charge of falsification, it needs to be properly investigated". CPM and CPI demanded a thorough probe into Khemka's allegation. CPM politburo member Brinda Karat asked for a "full and impartial "investigation into Vadra's land deals in both Haryana and Rajasthan even as she said that the probe ordered by Haryana government was a "whitewash" that had no credibility. In a statement, CPM said "these business dealings and affairs of these companies should be investigated by relevant authorities. Only such a probe can bring out the truth". CPI's D Raja also pressed for an investigation. "These have not been any clear answers to questions which have been raised regarding the finances of these companies and their activities," he said. via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHJ2MOZgzrJ_qfz7pSVwubAFjmFBg&url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Whistleblower-Khemka-a-BJP-stooge-Congress/articleshow/21750053.cms

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