AICC not amused with Digvijay’s ‘surprise’ plans

If there is one place the Congress is always looking at for rude surprises, it is Madhya Pradesh. For the past six months, the party has bee...

If there is one place the Congress is always looking at for rude surprises, it is Madhya Pradesh. For the past six months, the party has been trying to catch up with what Chief Minister Digvijay Singh would do next. And exactly how to defend it.

The list is long, starting from Singh’s move on a national ban on cow slaughter, crossing the 50 per cent barrier for reservation, proposing the cow as a state animal or, more recently, imposing a collective fine on OBCs, a crucial vote-bank of the party.

Party looking into Laxman Singh’s OBC statement

NEW DELHI: The AICC has asked the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee to ascertain facts of the statement made by MP Laxman Singh against the MP government’s decision to impose ‘‘collective fine’’ against OBCs. The state government had imposed collective fine against members of OBC community for destroying crops in five villages of Rajgarh in fields that were distributed to the SC and ST community. Rajgarh MP Laxman Singh, CM Digvijay Singh’s younger brother, had expressed apprehension that this move could heighten tensions between the two communities. —ENS

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Arguing that on issues which are state subjects chief ministers enjoy freedom, Ambika Soni, general secretary incharge of Madhya Pradesh, said: ‘‘All chief ministers under Sonia Gandhi have had the freedom to deal with situations and political challenges in their own way, as each state poses special challenges.’’

‘‘But all the states adhere to the Congress policy on various matters. There may be a difference in perception. For instance on cow slaughter, it is upto the state government and many states have already banned it. It is the same with reservation for the weaker sections,’’ she added.

The fact remains that in the last few months, Singh has been stretching this ‘‘freedom of chief ministers.’’

In April, the AICC had to work hard defending Digvijay who had supposedly proposed a ban on cow slaughter. After inquiries, the AICC learnt that he had only forwarded a proposal to the Centre that had reached him.

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But by then, the Congress had to answer many questions on the issue. In June, the AICC was caught unawares by Digvijay’s decision to increase total job reservation to 63 per cent by taking the OBC quota from 14 to 27 per cent. A Bill to this effect was approved by the state Cabinet yesterday.

And now it is the ‘‘collective fine’’ issue that has been imposed against members of OBC community in five villages of Rajgarh district for destroying crops on lands that were distributed to SCs and STs.

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