File photo: Union Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda.
The Prime Minster needn't comment on "so simple issues, so silly issues," said Union Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda today, after the Opposition Congress questioned what it calls Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on the Vyapam scam in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh. 36 people linked to the scam have died.
"See, certain issues which are so simple issues, so silly issues that need not be answered by the Prime Minister. Our Home Minister, ministers of concerned departments and even my party president Amit Shah have answered everything. For each and every silly issue Prime Minister has to answer. It is not fair," said Mr Gowda.
Amid the criticism that followed, the law minister tweeted a clarification saying, "Let me reiterate again that #INC (the Congress) linking Lalit Modi with #Vyapam case is silly... I would like to make it clear that I didn't mean Vyapam case as simple n silly. I used the words simple and silly in connection with the Lalit Modi issue and INC linking it everything. (sic)"
The Congress lashed out at Mr Gowda. "It's an irresponsible statement. He is a law minister and he should answer... It's a murderous scam so we are asking for monitoring by the Supreme Court," said the party's Shakeel Ahmed.
Earlier in the day, the Congress' Digvijay Singh had said, "PM stays silent on these issues and tweets on Tunisia, Syria... Now he is on a Central Asia tour... I think from now on he will stay abroad."
Digvijay Singh, also a former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, has spearheaded the Congress' attack against current chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the Vyapam scam, pressing for a CBI inquiry into allegations that top politicians and bureaucrats of the state accepted kickbacks in exchange for allowing imposters to take recruitment exams for government jobs and admission to colleges.
Mr Chouhan today requested the state's High Court to order a CBI inquiry.