Haryana minister facing sexual harassment charges should resign: Hooda

Chandigarh, Aug 26 (IANS) Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Hooda on Saturday said the state minister Sandeep Singh, who has been booked on charges of sexual harassment and wrongful confinement of a woman coach, should resign on the moral grounds.

Hooda said that the Chief Minister should seek his resignation “if he does not do so”.

Addressing the media here, the two-time chief minister said the party raised this issue in the ongoing assembly session too. “The government has deliberately kept the duration of the session short as it does not want to answer important issues.”

“It seems that the government is in a hurry. That is why the adjournment motions given by the Congress regarding flood and compensation was converted into calling attention motion. The Congress has also proposed to discuss the Nuh violence and law and order in the state, but the Speaker sent that too to the government for comment,” he said.

Hooda said that the government did not give a clear answer even on the issue of blatant problems in family identity cards. “The government could not explain how rich are being shown as poor, and the poor as rich. There are innumerable flaws in the government's property ID and family identity card, which could not be rectified even after so long. Despite this, no legal action was taken against the company that had the contract to execute the project,” he said.

On the question of taking out religious processions again in Mewat, Hooda said: “It is everyone’s right to hold a procession. No one should have any objection to the procession, but the government should take precaution in each case, considering its seriousness.

“Despite knowing everything last time, the government did not take proper steps regarding the safety of the procession and the government did not take cognisance of the provocative statements, which led to the violence.”

Hooda said religious processions were taken out even during the Congress tenure, but there was never any violence, while such incidents have become common in the BJP government because “this is a government of riots”.

Hooda said the party has been demanding a judicial inquiry into the Nuh violence under the supervision of the sitting judge of the high court so that is established on how the violence happened, and who was responsible for it.

He said the government is running away from the investigation.