Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Sunday virtually issued an ultimatum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reconsider his decision to appoint civil rights activist Binayak Sen, who is out on bail after being convicted of sedition by a Raipur court a couple of months ago, as a member of Plan panel’s Steering Committee on Health.
“I am going to boycott the meetings of the Planning Commission as long as Binayak Sen remains a member of Plan panel. I am going to write a letter to the Prime Minister, who is also chairman of Planning Commission, seeking his opinion if it will be proper on my part to attend meetings of Plan panel, which has nominated a convict as its member,” Mr Singh told reporters here.
“Let me see what will be the reply (of Prime Minister)”, he added.
Mr Singh said he did not approve of the nomination of a person who has been convicted of sedition and other serious charges and is out on bail pending his appeal in the high court as member of the Plan body.
Sources in the chief minister’s office (CMO) here told this newspaper that all the state ministers have also been directed to skip the meetings of the Plan panel as long as Mr Sen continues to be its member.
Sources said chief minister would try to impress upon the Prime Minister that it was not his government but the court that has convicted Mr Sen of many serious charges, including sedition. The Centre has set a wrong precedent by inducting a convict in the Plan panel.
The chief minister reportedly saw a conspiracy in the appointment by the UPA government to show his government in poor light in public.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and tribal MP Nand Kumar Sai took strong exception to induction of Mr Sen in Plan panel, saying, “Then what is wrong in asking global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim to head Planning Commission”.