Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s attack against Shivraj Singh Chouhan, chief minister of poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, backfired after the latter threatened to file a defamation suit against him on Tuesday. The Congress president, while addressing an election rally in Jhabua, had alleged that the name of Chouhan’s son had surfaced in the Panama Papers scandal.
Taking objection to the claim, Chouhan took to Twitter to slam Gandhi for making “false allegations” against him and his family in relations to Vyapam scams and Panama Papers. Addressing Gandhi in a tweet, the CM wrote on Monday, “You have been making patently false allegations of Vyapam to Panama Papers against me and my family. Tomorrow, I am filing a criminal defamation suit for maximum damages against you for frivolous and malafide statements.”
He added in the end, “Let law take its own course now.”
At a public rally in Jhabua, Gandhi had attacked Chouhan, drawing a link between the CM’s son and the Panama Papers scandal, claiming that no action had been taken against them. He had said, “Name of the son of CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan surfaced in the Panama papers, but no action was taken. Even a country like Pakistan punished its former PM when he was named in the Panama papers.”
It’s interesting to note here that the name of a BJP Chief Minister’s son had indeed surfaced in the Panama Papers row in 2016. However, it was Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh’s son, Abhishek, whose name had cropped up in the controversy, and not that of MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s son.
Meanwhile, Singh, in another tweet accused the Congress of “looking down upon BJP workers” and calling them names. He tweeted, “Congress has been in practice of looking down upon the BJP workers. It called Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘Maut ka Saudagar’, ‘neech’ and ‘Bicchu’. The party called me ‘nalayak’, ‘madari’ etc. Staying away from making the government is getting tougher for them and it is affecting them mentally.”
In yet another tweet, Chouhan reiterated his threat to file a defamation case against Gandhi, and tweeted, “For the past many years, Congress has been accusing me and my family. We respect everybody and maintain our dignity but, today Rahul Gandhi crossed his limits when he said my son Yuva Kartikey’s name has come in Panama papers.”
