AAP slams Nadda’s inclusion in Cabinet

“It is shocking that despite written evidence being available with the Prime Minister’s Office about the role of Nadda in getting whistleblower officer Sanjeev Chaturvedi removed as Chief Vigilance Officer of AIIMS, he has been made a Cabinet minister,” the AAP said in an official statement.

The party referred to the letters written by Nadda on June 24 to then Union Health Minister Harshvardhan. The letter had alleged irregularities in Chaturvedi’s appointment. Alleging that Nadda had tried to get Chaturvedi removed from the post at least thrice, the AAP said this was done as “an officer close to him was under scanner for alleged corrupt deals running into hundreds of crores”.

The party also raised concerns on BJP’s stand on the Chaturvedi case. “Not once has this party cleared the air on the reasons for Nadda’s unjustified interference in the functioning of AIIMS, a direct assault on its autonomy,” the AAP said.

“Nadda’s elevation is in direct contrast to the BJP’s pre-election promise of providing a corruption- free government and this move will send a wrong signal to the bureaucracy,” the statement added.

In August this year, Chaturvedi, had been removed from the post, after he had acted against several top officials of AIIMS, such as former deputy director (administration) Vineet Chaudhry, a Himachal Pradesh cadre IAS officer, IPS officer Sailesh Yadav, who also held the post of DDA, AIIMS, former registrar V P Gupta and former chief administrative officer Attar Singh.

Before he joined AIIMS in 2012, Chaturvedi — an Indian Forest Service officer from the Haryana cadre — had been transferred 12 times in five years and he had also alleged corruption by ministers and bureaucrats in Haryana.