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BJP Ministers Scared To Speak Out On Scandals: Shanta Kumar

BJP Ministers Scared To Speak Out On Scandals: Shanta Kumar
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in charge of Punjab's affairs, Shanta Kumar (C), attends a meeting with a delegation from the industrial sector at a hotel in Amritsar on May 19, 2012. Kumar visited the city to hear about any problems in manufacturing and industry. AFP PHOTO/ NARINDER NANU (Photo credit should read NARINDER NANU/AFP/GettyImages)
NARINDER NANU via Getty Images
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in charge of Punjab's affairs, Shanta Kumar (C), attends a meeting with a delegation from the industrial sector at a hotel in Amritsar on May 19, 2012. Kumar visited the city to hear about any problems in manufacturing and industry. AFP PHOTO/ NARINDER NANU (Photo credit should read NARINDER NANU/AFP/GettyImages)

NEW DELHI -- While the Bharatiya Janata Party resolutely supports its leaders embroiled in recent controversies, senior lawmaker Shanta Kumar has insisted that he isn't the only party member who is troubled over the Lalit Modi scandal and the Vyapam scam, which have hit the Modi government and the BJP in recent months.

The former chief minister of Himachal Pradesh has said that three ministers supported his recent letter to the prime minister in which he wrote, "The Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh has caused all of us to bow our heads in shame."

"They were themselves unable or scared to speak out. They said I had spoken on their behalf," he told India Today.

Kumar also said that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan should resign over the Vyapam scam, and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje role in the Lalit Modi scandal should be investigated.

The veteran BJP leader said that he stood by his 2002 interview to the online news portal Rediff.com in which he said that if he was the chief minister of Gujarat then he would have resigned after the 2002 religious violence in Gujarat, but he now felt that Modi was right person to lead the country.

Kumar refuted recent media reports that he had been censured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his July 10 letter to BJP President Amit Shah.

Modi reportedly told lawmakers to "speak to leaders before making public comments," and warned "there is no need to spread misinformation."

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