PMO, Rajnath Singh deny reports on Pankaj Singh's 'misconduct' - Livemint

The PMO statement came in the wake of a report that Rajnath Singh was unhappy over rumours being spread by “a ministerial colleague” and “party rival” about his son being pulled up by Narendra Modi over some alleged misconduct. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) came out strongly in defence of home minister Rajnath Singh and his son Pankaj Singh who has been named in some media reports for his alleged and unspecified misconduct, and claimed these reports were against national interest.

The statement from Narendra Modi ’s office came a few minutes after the home minister said he had discussed the reports with Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah and offered to quit politics if any of the allegations against his son were proved.

Like the PMO, and the media reports, he too did not specify what the allegations were.

Pankaj Singh is general secretary in the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit.

“This has reference to reports appearing in a section of the media over the past several weeks, mentioning the Prime Minister, and referring to the conduct of some Union ministers, and alleged misconduct of the home minister’s son. The reports are plain lies, motivated and constitute a malicious attempt at character assassination and tarnishing the image of the government. Those indulging in such rumour-mongering are damaging the interest of the nation. These reports are strongly denied,” a press statement issued by the PMO said.

Senior leaders of the BJP indicated that Singh had pointed out to both Modi and Shah that it was possible that some of the senior members of the party were involved in spreading false information against him and his son. “Obviously, if the Prime Minister has responded on the allegations, then he must have inquired about developments,” said a senior BJP leader aware of the development.

Singh pointed out that both Shah and Modi were surprised when he took the matter of alleged misconduct to them.

“The allegations against my family members are baseless. I will quit politics if there is an iota of proof against me or my family members’ integrity. I have spoken to the PM and the BJP chief who have also denied these rumours,” Singh told reporters.

Shah too came out in defence of the former party chief. “The allegations are baseless and I would urge the media not to become part of the misinformation campaign against the government which is working for the development of the country. Singh is one of the senior-most leaders of the BJP and his son, Pankaj Singh, has been part of BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit for the last 10 years,” he said in a statement.

Political analysts believe there is a strong rift between senior ministersof the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and younger leaders which has come out in the open.

“There is a power struggle going on within the BJP where senior leaders are being sidelined by younger leaders. The way senior-most leaders like L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were removed from the parliamentary board and now, even Kalyan Singh has been made a governor and shifted out of Uttar Pradesh, (shows) there is a power struggle going within the party. Still, I am not sure if senior leaders of the party will stoop so low to target Rajnath Singh’s son to settle political scores with him,” said Bidyut Chakrabarty, professor of political science in Delhi University.

Congress general secretary Ajay Maken demanded that the Prime Minister tell what the allegations he was denying are, Press Trust of India reported. Maken termed the development “strange”, since his own party, which is in opposition, has not levelled any allegations.