Gujarat Minister speaks out against CM

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR, AUG. 8. After embarrassing the Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, on the floor of the State Assembly, the Gujarat Minister for Jails and Rural Development, Mr. Jaspal Singh, today virtually gave a ``dressing down'' to Mr. Patel at a Cabinet meeting here.

Party sources said an embarrassed Chief Minister had no reply to Mr. Singh's charge that the ruling BJP had failed to check corruption and that some of its Ministers and chairmen of State- owned boards and corporations were leading luxurious lives far beyond their known sources of income.

Mr. Singh is said to have thrown at the Chief Minister some newspaper cuttings with reports about a house being constructed in Baroda by the State Electricity Board chairman, Mr. Nalin Bhatt. A former Minister, Mr. Bhatt, who a decade ago was living in a rented one-room house, is said to have built a bungalow costing over Rs. 50 lakhs.

Mr. Singh also painted a gloomy picture about the future of the BJP in the State if no effort was made by the leadership to improve its image. To Mr. Patel's remark that there was enough time before launching an image-building exercise for the Assembly elections in February, 2003, Mr. Singh said, ``we are already running out of time and there is no way we can improve the party's and the Government's image unless the high command takes some drastic actions.''

Mr. Patel is said to have expressed regret for not keeping a watch over the party functionaries on their style of living. Even he himself is alleged to have installed 40 air- conditioners in his official bungalow here, which prompted the Congress Legislature Party secretary, Mr. Udeysinh Baria, to comment in the Assembly that Mr. Patel should become the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir if he felt Gandhinagar was so hot.

Mr. Singh, it is said, spoke for more than 15 minutes but none of the Ministers prevented him from levelling charges against the Chief Minister or come to the latter's aid. Mr. Singh, however, is known to be a Patel-baiter, particularly after the Chief Minister took away his Food and Civil Supplies portfolio last year and gave him the less important Jails and Rural Development Ministry.

Mr. Singh surprised the treasury benches on Thursday demanding a higher budgetary allocation for the jails. Replying to the debate on the budgetary demands for his department, Mr. Singh said the budget allocated for the modernisation and repairing of the jails was not sufficient for even white-washing the jail walls.

BJP sources, however, say the reason for Mr. Singh's tirade is not corruption but political. The party had made it almost clear to him that he would not be given the ticket to contest the next Assembly elections, and he is trying to ``instigate'' the party leadership into ``throwing him out'' and become a hero in the eyes of the people.

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