Asha Kumari rejects calls to quit; Congress hits back at BJP

At the centre of a controversy over her conviction in a land grab case, an unfazed Congress secretary in-charge of Punjab Asha Kumari on Monday rejected demands for her resignation, asserting she had party chief Sonia Gandhi’s ‘full mandate’.

Amid reports that her appointment as secretary in-charge of Punjab has left the Congress embarrassed, Kumari met Sonia and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal of unnecessarily making an issue out of a ‘non-issue’.

“I am sorry, I cannot oblige them,” she told reporters, rejecting calls for her resignation.

“I have been given full mandate by the Congress president and vice president to work for the party in Punjab,” she said after her meeting.

The appointment of Asha Kumari, a niece of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and four-term member of the legislative assembly from Dalhousie, had kicked up a storm on Sunday as she had been convicted in a land grab case in which she had allegedly transferred forest land to her husband. She was sentenced to a year in jail but is currently out on bail.

The information, coming as it did close on the heels of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath relinquishing the post of general secretary in-charge of Punjab, days after being appointed, over allegations of his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, was reported to have caused embarrassment to the party.

The BJP, the AAP and the SAD were quick to assail the Congress leadership for appointing Kumari the secretary in-charge of the party in Punjab which will have assembly polls next year, saying the party was not serious about the state.

“It is for parties to decide who is going to lead the party. If somebody is there in government, it is a different issue,” she said, adding the AAP cannot decide who will lead the Congress in which state.

All India Congress Committee sources said Kumari will not continue as the AICC secretary in-charge of Haryana, a responsibility she was handling for some. Instead, Kamal Nath will be the AICC general secretary in-charge of Haryana after relinquishing the charge of Punjab.

Kumari said the BJP and AAP were trying to make ‘an issue out of a non-issue’ as they ‘fear’ the Congress.

“We are very much geared up to form the government in Punjab and the BJP and others are scared,” she said.

Defending herself in the case in which she was convicted and sentenced to a year’s imprisonment, Asha Kumari said, “It has become fashionable to use the word ‘land grabbing’. How can I grab the land which belongs to my father-in-law.”

Kumari said the case was related to a property which was owned by her father-in-law and the tenants had forged some papers to claim ownership, which was challenged in court.

When asked if the controversy would have an adverse fallout for Congress in Punjab, she said, “Not at all.”

Meanwhile, defending the appointment of Kumari, the Congress shot back at the BJP for its criticism on the issue, saying, “Amit Shah is an accused in a murder case who is out on bail.”

“BJP president Amit Shah is charged of murder and is out on bail. He is an accused in a murder case. Yeddyurappa (who has been made BJP chief in Karnataka) is accused of corruption.

“Ten cases are pending against Keshav Prasad Maurya who has been made BJP chief in Uttar Pradesh,” party spokesman Kapil Sibal told reporters, adding. “The Congress can never even think of appointing a murder accused as its chief.”

He alleged some BJP ministers in Gujarat continued to occupy their posts despite being ‘convicted’ by courts.

Sibal was responding to the attack on the Congress by the BJP and some other parties over the appointment of Asha Kumari.

He said the matter involving Asha Kumari was a ‘highly complicated and complex’ land issue and ‘not a case of murder and graft’.

A note circulated by the AICC after the briefing gave a detailed description of the case and claimed she was a ‘victim of political vendetta’ carried out through courts and that she will be acquitted by the Himachal Pradesh high court, which is hearing her appeal.

The genesis of the case is a family dispute between Raja Prem Singh of Chamba and his younger brother late Rajkumar Brijendra Singh, the husband of Asha Kumari, over ancestral properties the note said. It alleged that Raja Prem Singh had, with the connivance of the then BJP Chief Minister P K Dhumal, got the case registered.

IMAGE: Congress party's new in-charge for Punjab affairs Asha Kumari assumes charge at party headquarters in New Delhi on Monday. Photograph: Subhav Shukla/PTI Photo