A Move Backfires

Lekha Rattanani April 03, 1996 00:00 IST A Move Backfires -0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53

IT is a decision the state government is finding hard to defend. The new chief secretary they brought in has been accused of graft—he also faces arrest—and on the eve of elections, it comes as a boon to the Opposition.

A little over a fortnight after Dinesh Afzulpurkar took over as chief secretary, the CBI filed an FIR charging him with leasing prime property at throwaway prices to former Union minister Bansi Lal's daughter-in-law and office-bearer of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, Kiran Chaudhary.

 This was one thing the Shiv Sena BJP combine could well do without, especially because the saffron brigade holds up the alleged 'corruption' of Sharad Pawar as a major poll plank. Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde have both been cornered into telling the legislature that Afzulpurkar would be ousted if found guilty. Agreeing that the charges against the chief secretary were "of a serious nature", Joshi declared that Afzulpurkar would not remain chief secretary "even for a minute" if the charges against him were...