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Controversies in BJP-ruled states have made us hang heads in shame: Senior BJP lawmaker

by IBNS 21 Jul 2015, 01:36 am

New Delhi, Jul 21 (IBNS) In the first instance of a senior BJP leader going public criticising the party's line, an octogenarian lawmaker has warned that the recent controversies have sullied the party's image, saying they have "made us all bow our heads in shame.".

In a letter to BJP president Amit Shah, Shanta Kumar, a lawmaker from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, has also demanded that the party must set up an "ethics committee to act like a Lokpal to root out corruption," reports said.

In his letter, the senior BJP leader referred to the  Vyapam recruitment scam in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.

He also referred to  Rajasthan and Maharashtra, when he suggested the need for a "Lokpal" to "keep a check on leaders in government. He, however, did not mention the names of  Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje,caught in the Lalit Modi scandal, or Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde being accused by the opposition of a scam.

Shanta Kumar, who was a union minister in the BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, wrote the letter on July 10, but posted it on Facebook just a day before the crucial monsoon session begins.

"I stand by every word I wrote in letter (to Amit Shah), don't want to say anything else," Kumar has been quoted as saying.