The beleagured Bharatiya Janata Party leadership which has decided to brazen out the opposition's demand for resignations of senior party leaders because of controversies surrounding its senior leaders Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Pankaja Munde was left red-faced on the eve of the monsoon session of Parliament when senior party leader Shanta Kumar on Monday released copies of a letter he wrote to party chief Amit Shah. In the letter, Kumar said the Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh had made the party workers hang their heads in shame and that fingers were being pointed at the party from Rajasthan to Maharashtra.

While Kumar did not name any individual leader in these two states, it was clear that his pointed reference was to charges against Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for her family’s commercial ties to former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi, and Pankaja Munde in Maharashtra for charges against her in what has come to be called the Chikki scam, where she faces allegations of awarding government contracts worth crores without following due procedure.

Kumar singled out Madhya Pradesh's Vyapam scam in which the entrance exams for college seats and government jobs were allegedly rigged on a large scale. Although he did not name Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Kumar went on to say that the entire party was having to pay a price for not taking suitable action at the right time and demanded the formation of an ethics committee that would be empowered to act as "Lokpal at central and state level and should have the confidence to point out the errors of those sitting in power at the right time."

While praising Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kumar concluded by saying that that history will  never forgive it if it failed to deliver on its promises.

The former Himachal Pradesh chief minister and senior cabinet minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government, who is the sitting BJP member of Parliament from Kangra, released copies of his signed two-page July 10 letter, written in Hindi, on his Facebook and Twitter accounts on Monday evening.

A rough English translation of the letter follows:
Shanta Kumar
Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha)
Chairman
Committee on Public Undertakings

July 10, 2015

Respected Amit Shah ji,

Under your leadership, programmes are being implemented to give a new direction to the organisation and to take it to new horizons. It is our good fortune that Bharatiya Janata Party has become the world's largest political party and that you are guiding it to make it the strongest and the most powerful one.

A thinker had said that it is good to be important but it is better to be good. Not all who are important are good.

I remember that in 1951-'52 when Bharatiya Jana Sangh was created, the greatest emphasis was laid on value based politics. This was described at length in our five allegiances. In both the practical conduct and the speeches of our leaders of those times, the greatest priority was accorded to safeguarding values among workers and the party. We gradually came to power. A lot changed after that. At some places value-based politics compromised with power-based politics. Despite that, we stood out as different from other parties, even though the politics of power began to slowly erode our image as a party with a difference.

During the last 10 years that the Congress was in power at the Centre, there was such a debasement of values that anger and worry rose among the public. Gradually, an atmosphere of mistrust in politics was created. The common man began to say that all those in politics are the same, some are less corrupt, others are more. Around the same time, the fragrance of good governance in Gujarat began to spread nationwide. The light of Narendra Modi's personal integrity [shutikaa?] and the story of the state's development began to spread everywhere. When Bharatiya Janata Party decided to fight elections under his leadership, there was a ray of hope in the entire country. The public gave a historical and unprecedented mandate.

With great fanfare, our government was formed at the Centre. The first year was one of achievements. While we were celebrating our achievements at the end of the first year, we seem to have come under a shadow, an eclipse of sorts [grahan saa ag gayaa]. From Rajasthan to Maharashtra, fingers began to be pointed at us. The Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh has made us hang our heads in shame. It is natural for any Indian to be dejected and frustrated over the way the front pages of newspapers and headlines on TV channels are covering this news story. The BJP workers are walking with their heads hanging in shame.

You have formed many committees at the central and state level to run the party in an efficient manner. I have a suggestion: we should have an ethics committee. This should have such committed and experienced people from the party who have never compromised over values. These committees should act as Lokpal at central and state level and should have the confidence to point out the errors of those sitting in power at the right time.

The charges being levelled against us in various states could not have come about only now. This must have come to light much earlier somewhere or the other at different points in time. Some people must have discussed them also, but because of a lack of a systemic process for addressing such issues, it was not possible to take any action in time. The entire party is having to pay the price for this.

The entire politics of India has been reduced to one for getting votes and power, cheating and chicanery and selfishness. Very little is seen of politics driven by patriotism and sense of serving the nation. If even we fail to fully succeed in this, history will never forgive us.

Yours,
Shanta Kumar

Shri Amit Shah
National President
Bharatiya Janata Party
11 Ashoka Road
New Delhi