Virbhadra quits Cabinet, as court frames graft charges

Virbhadra Singh, cabinet minister in charge of small, micro and medium industries, on Tuesday gave his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after a Himachal court decided there was enough evidence to warrant a trial on corruption charges against him and his wife.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party, had demanded he quit or be dismissed, as had the India Against Corruption activists following Anna Hazare’s leadership.

Speaking to reporters here, Singh had said, “No one asked me to quit. This my moral duty, as I did not want to embarrass my party, PM or government.”

This makes it three cabinet-rank ministers in the second term of the United Progressive Alliance coalition since 2009 to have had to resign on charges of graft and misuse of office. Telecom minister A Raja and textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran went as a fallout of the 2G telecom scam probe. Earlier, Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for external affairs, quit over the controversy pertaining to the Indian Premier League cricket tourney’s Kochi team.

The impact of Singh’s resignation would be felt in Himachal, which has legislative assembly poll scheduled at the end of this year. He had taken the oath of office five times as chief minister of the state The Congress hopes to unseat the BJP from power in these elections.

Singh’s resignation came a day after the court had framed charges against him in a case dating back to 1989. The prime bit of material was a tape of Singh allegedly having a conversation with a civil service official and some industrialists regarding questionable monetary transactions. Singh initially sought to dismiss it as a “conspiracy by rivals”. However, after he met party president Sonia Gandhi yesterday, it was made clear to him that his position in the Cabinet had become untenable. The UPA government is already dogged with a series of scams.

CONTROVERSIAL EXITS
UPA-II ministers who have resigned in the wake of contoversies

Shashi Tharoor resigned as MoS for External Affairs on April 18, 2010, over the Indian Premier League (IPL) Kochi team controversy wherein Sunanda Pushkar (now Tharoor's wife) was found to have got sweat equity of Rs 70 crore

resigned as telecom minister on November 15, 2010, over his alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation scam. CBI chargesheeted him as the main accused

Dayanidhi Maran resigned as textiles minister on July 7, 2011. He was named by the CBI in an FIR related to irregularities in the Aircel-Maxis deal during his stint as telecom minister

Virbhadra Singh resigned as small, micro and medium industries minister on June 26, 2012, over corruption charges pertaining to a 1989 case in which he and his wife were allegedly caught on CD conversing with an IAS officer and some industrialists regarding monetary transactions

Said BJP spokesperson Jagat Prakash Nadda: “There is corruption from top to bottom in the UPA government. The Prime Minister should take action as soon as possible against all ministers on whom serious charges have been levelled.”

Responded Janardan Dwivedi, a general secretary of the Congress, “Virbhadra Singh has taken moral responsibility and resigned. A chargesheet has been filed. But it does not mean that he is guilty.”

According to Congress party sources, it is keen on having him actively involved in the coming Assembly elections, portraying him as an innocent victim to intrigues by state chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his government.