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Eyebrows were raised, then voices of allegation and bitter sarcasm, when Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently declared that all appointments made in the state since 1993 (a Congress gove­rn­ment in office between 1993 and 2003) would be ‘inquired into’. Chouhan’s det­r­actors snigger that the move is just a way to deflect attention from the humongous professional examination scam that is bothering him. The extent to which the normally unflappable Chou­han is rattled by almost daily insinuations aimed at him and his family is reflected in the two defamation cases filed by the CM and the state government. Last year, Chouhan had filed a criminal defamation case against Cong­ress chief Sonia Gandhi and state Cong­ress chief Kantilal Bhuria for allegations of corruption made in the run-up to the assembly polls.

Congress leaders have been accusing the CM’s wife, Sadhna Singh, of being an unconstitutional power centre for years. Her name was dragged into the ‘dumper scam’; it was alleged that the state government favoured her and her brother’s business interests in awarding contracts and that she was patronising the state’s mining mafia. Now, her name has again been dragged into the examination and appointment scandal that has rocked the state. And while earlier allegations did not cut much ice, the latest ones appear to be too close for comfort.

“The electoral defeat has made the Con­­gress lose its mind,” Chouhan said, as he rushed to New Delhi to consult central leaders. He later called on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at Dhar. But an unfazed Cong­ress charged that Chou­han had all­o­wed his niece to appear at a Public Service Commission examination from his residence, and that his influence led to her appointment as one of the 12 dep­uty collectors recruited in 2008-09.

The scandal relates primarily to medical admissions. The Special Task Force of the MP police has so far arrested hundreds of students, parents and brokers and cancelled 1,100 admissions to med­ical colleges since 2008. Gover­nm­ent sources sought to play down the cha­­rges of improper appointments by cla­­iming that while 3,58,000 people were recruited since 2003, only 228 were done so ‘illegally’ and were in jail. The STF is probing 10 admission and rec­ruitment rackets—PMT and Pre-PG (Medical) adm­ission scams and scams in recruitment tests for sub-inspectors, pol­ice con­stables, forest guards, contractual tea­chers, weights and measureme­nts and food inspectors, Milk Federation rec­­ruitment, besides the Open School marksheet fraud.

The money made by the entire battery of scams is estimated to be around Rs 2,000 crore, including Rs 500 crore made fraudulently through pre-medical tests for admission to MBBS courses. Call rec­ords analysed by the STF has brought senior IAS and IPS officials, doctors, even a few journalists, under the scanner.

While the political grapevine whispers of a section within the BJP trying to cut the CM to size, the Congress appears to have found a softer target in his wife. Mar­ried to Chouhan in 1992, Sadhna has maintained a dignified silence so far.

Chouhan also attacked former Con­gress CM Digvijay Singh for violating norms for appointments to government jobs during his tenure. Armed with evidence, Chouhan read out to the assembly how Digvijaya had issued a written order towards ‘relaxing all rules’ to appoint someone. “Over 700 fraud recruitments took place during the Congress regime; the STF will investigate them,” a visibly irate Chouhan said. The decision to scrutinise recruitments since 1993 was taken in the same spirit of counter-attack.The air is thick with charges flying from either side of the battle-line. And the barrage shows no signs of lifting.

By K.S. Shaini in Bhopal