Digvijay back in politics as Assembly polls near

Old battle horse Digvijay Singh is out in the open as the State assembly elections are round the corner in Madhya Pradesh.

Digvijay's open challenge to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to arrest him as ‘desh drohi’ is not coming from the official Congress platform.

Coming as it does, at a time when the former AICC general secretary has rather unceremoniously been dropped from the Congress Working Committee (CWC).  Is Digvijay's presence going to help his friend Kamal Nath or the ruling BJP? The jury seems divided.

In the previous elections, he did not campaign in Madhya Pradesh extensively.

He visited a few constituencies and in those assembly segments, Congress was defeated with huge margins. It was believed that the image of Digvijay Singh as ‘Mr Bantadhar’, portrayed by the BJP during campaigning before 2003 polls, was alive in Madhya Pradesh.

Even in the current scenario, Digvijay Singh, who was being not actively participated in the affairs in Madhya Pradesh, has now come in the centre of the politics.

Two days ago in Satna, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had reportedly said, “Talking about Hindu terrorism is an insult to the country and its culture....

He is the kind of person who visits the homes of terrorists killed by police and glorifies them. Many times, such acts of Digvijay ji seem anti-national.” A BJP release issued on July 19, quoted Chouhan as saying so at Satna.

In apparent reference to Singh's calling Osama bin Laden as ‘Osama ji’, Chouhan asked, according to the BJP release, if adding the honorific 'Ji' for a terrorist was not an anti-national act.

Annoyed with the statement of Chouhan, in a letter to the chief minister, Singh said that he would appear before police and they could arrest him.

"I have taken the oath to follow Constitution. So I have decided to present myself before the law to protect the unity and integrity of India....I would present myself at TT Nagar Police Station (in Bhopal) on July 26," Singh stated in the letter.

In his letter, Singh said, "Being the chief minister, it is your constitutional duty to take legal action if any such case falling under the category of anti-nationalism comes to your knowledge." If the chief minister does not have any evidence against him, then he should apologise, Singh demanded. Notably, with this courting arrest of Singh, his supporters are busy in mobilizing the party workers in the city. His banners and posters are being placed in different parts of the city. Surprisingly, the PCC, PCC Chief Kamal Nath and Campaign Committee Chairman Jyotiraditya Scindia have so far not come up against the statement of Chouhan or in support of Digvijay Singh.

Besides, the tour programme issued by Digvijay Singh’s office mentions timings of both, his arrival in Bhopal on July 26 and departure on the same evening. This clearly suggests that courting arrest is merely a political stunt and instead of being lodged in the jail, he would return to Delhi the same evening.