Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s request to the high court to order a CBI probe into the Vyapam scam is a step in the right direction. He had for long stalled the Congress’s demand to call in the CBI, claiming that only the high court could do so, since the special investigation team probing the scam was constituted under its directive in 2013, and reported to it. Chouhan’s plea to the high court comes at a time when the Supreme Court is set to hear a clutch of petitions on July 9.
Chouhan was left with little choice but to acquiesce to the demand for a CBI probe after the spate of deaths of people linked to Vyapam — an accused, a witness and even a journalist probing the case — in the past few days. The unusually high mortality number — from 25 suspicious deaths according to state officials, to 45 according to activists — has spooked many. Doubts have been raised about the intentions of the state government. Its initial reluctance to protect whistleblowers even after they complained of death threats did not help. The statement by Uma Bharti, a cabinet minister at the Centre and a former MP CM, on Monday that she feared for the lives of 17 people whom she had allegedly recommended for employment is revealing. If Chouhan’s government does not inspire confidence even among BJP leaders, if it has lost the perception war, it can only blame itself. Since the scam hit the headlines in 2009, the state government has done little to convince people of its commitment to nailing the guilty. Though it admitted to impersonation, copying and forgery in examinations and recruitment processes conducted by Vyapam, the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, the government played down the scale of the scam and the complicity of the highest public officials. As investigations proceeded, the governor’s office was implicated in the scam and the opposition even accused Chouhan’s family of involvement. Though nearly 2,000 people, including a state minister, have been arrested, the government has lost face.
