BHOPAL: Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Friday finally broke his silence over the continued diatribe against him by the state forest minister Umang Singhar.While maintaining that he has left the issue, presently hogging headlines since the last five days, to be dealt by Congress national president Sonia Gandhi and MP Congress chief Kamal Nath, the former CM said, “Irrespective of how big a leader is, action needs to be initiated against anyone who breaks discipline.”
Singh has been drawing saffron fury after claiming that some members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) spy more for Pakistan than Muslims. Responding to Digvijaya’s call for a crackdown on indiscipline within the party, the forest minister tweeted, “Yeh mera sujhav hai ki sabhi ko anushasan mein rahna chahiye (My advice is that everyone should stay within the bounds of disicipline).”
Singhar is the nephew and political successor of Late Jamuna Devi, a powerful tribal leader who was the deputy CM in the Congress government headed by Digvijaya Singh between 1998 and 2003. The strong differences between then CM and his deputy are well known.
Singh also linked the ongoing controversy over his recent remarks with the arrest of BJP IT cell office-bearer Dhruv Saxena and Bajrang Dal leader Balram Singh in an ISI-terror funding case of 2017. “The controversy followed only after I raised concern on the arrest of Dhruv Saxena (an officer bearer of BJP’s IT cell) and (Bajrang Dal leader) Balram Singh’s arrest for being on (Pakistan spy agency) ISI’s payroll,” Singh said.