Bouquets and brickbats for Rajnath Singh

lucknow: up chief minister rajnath singh received both bouquets and brickbat for sacking minister of state for institutional finance amarmani tripathi on wednesday. tripathi's alleged criminal nexus was no secret, but certainly the cm's quick action came as a welcome relief. he announced it as soon as he arrived here from new delhi about 10 am. that he took governor vishnu kant shastri into confidence on telephone, as he was out of station, showed a sense of urgency on his part.however, in its wake, the bjp-ruled government stood exposed. the incident only gave credence to the belief that the government was represented by ministers with criminal antecedents. significantly, this was contrary to the assertions of the cm as he had said there was no minister with criminal nexus in his government at his well-attended roza iftar party just a couple of days ago. although tripathi tried to wash his hands off the kidnapping incident, he finds himself in a tight spot nevertheless. reason: he is unable to defend himself as to why he provided shelter to the kidnappers arrested by the special task force (stf). this is the tip of an iceberg. in fact, tripathi's name, according to an official, also figured in the stf's report on the links of powerful up ministers with the dreaded mafia sri prakash shukla, who was killed in an encounter with the police in 1998. the report was prepared at the behest of then chief minister kalyan singh, who was also said to be on the hit list of shukla. although the report has never been made public despite repeated demands by the opposition and promises made from time to time by successive chief ministers, it was said to have indicted at least seven bjp ministers, one of them holding a coveted organisational post at present. if made public, the report would have surely sent the government packing, admits the official. since 1998, the report was gathering dust with the home department. when asked to comment on it, rajnath singh quipped: where is the report. like his predecessors — ram prakash gupta and kalyan singh— he too chose to sidetrack the issue, predictably to save the government. but amarmani is not a case in isolation who has caused embarrassment to the government. like him, sports minister raghuraj pratap singh alias raja bhaiya's name also figured for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of tobacco trader from kanpur. similarly, minister of state for home ranganath mishra was accused of helping a criminal to smuggle a truck loaded with ammunition from gorakhpur to nepal. raising these issues in the up assembly, congress leader pramod tiwari had put the government in the dock. repeatedly, he had demanded action against these ministers and alleged that the government was sheltering those having nexus with criminals.