Author:
Publication: Newsinsight.net
Date: October 30, 2003
A vilification campaign has commenced
against Ajit Jogi within the Congress, with party leaders saying that the
church has put pressure on Sonia Gandhi not to remove him following the
CBI inquiry in the document-forgery case.
Top sources said that with Jogi
as chief minister, the Congress is bound to lose Chhatisgarh, but Jogi's
rivals, Shyama Charan Shukla and Motilal Vora, have begun to believe the
spreading rumour that Sonia is backing him because they are both Catholics,
and moved to the background.
While Jogi has not been directly
implicated in this rumour, sources say that his top aides are spreading
the word that since they share the same religion, the Congress president
is "very close" to him.
Top Congress leaders have begun
to believe this canard, since Jogi remains in the saddle despite the strong
likelihood that the court next month will order framing of charges against
him in the document-forgery case.
Jogi had alleged a secret Intelligence-Bureau
"Operation Black Sea" to falsely implicate Congress leaders in corruption
cases, and prime minister A.B.Vajpayee rejected the charge, and ordered
a CBI inquiry, which has now netted the CM.
Congressmen question the rationale
of removing Vilasrao Deshmukh from the post of Maharashtra chief minister
and retaining Jogi inspite of a CBI inquiry, and the fear is that the party's
image will take a beating in court when the evidence is taken up against
him, which apparently includes statements from fourteen Chhatisgarh IAS
officers.
Partymen say that police investigations
against Christian missionaries allegedly involved in conversions have ceased
since Jogi came to power, and they fear that the BJP will exploit this
issue during the elections.
They also allege that the popular
Asthaa channel distributed by Ajit Jogi's son, Amit, has been withdrawn
from Chhatisgarh since after the spiritual guru, Asaram Bapu, objected
to the denigration of non-Christian faiths by missionaries.
