By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 20 Nov: The then BJP Government led by Trivendra Singh Rawat had filed a Special Leave Petition against Umesh Kumar, who is now an independent MLA from Khanpur. This was filed over the allegations levelled by Kumar against the then Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. The High Court had, however, favoured Kumar and ordered a CBI inquiry into the allegations levelled by Kumar against Rawat. This was challenged by the then Trivendra Singh Rawat government.
Recently, the issue made headlines once again when, three days ago, the state home department leaked the news that it had decided to withdraw its SLP against Kumar. This would have meant that the High Court decision would have become effective. The development resulted in two things. On the one hand, former Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat was deeply hurt at the development and met some national party leaders in Delhi on the issue. The second development was that the issue was expectedly made into a political one by the Opposition leaders, particularly Harish Rawat. This caused the government some embarrassment. Meanwhile, the pressure put by Trivendra Singh Rawat through some national leaders of the BJP, too, started having effect. The first such indication was given by BJP State President Mahendra Bhatt, who issued a statement that the party stood solidly behind its senior party leader Trivendra Singh Rawat and that, to the best of his knowledge, the SLP had not been withdrawn. This was naturally followed by a letter from the state home department clarifying that the SLP would not be withdrawn, thus bringing major relief and victory for Trivendra Singh Rawat.
Political analysts claim that this controversy could well have been avoided by Pushkar Singh Dhami as it was the government that had to go back on its decision to withdraw the SLP against Umesh Kumar and face further embarrassment.
