Gujral asks Prasad Varma to resign<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI (Reuter): Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral
\nhas asked a junior minister accused in a $280-million corruption
\nscandal to resign, government officials said yesterday.<\/p>\n
They said Gujral had written to Junior Rural Areas and
\nEmployment Minister Chandradeo Prasad Varma seeking his
\nresignation from the council of ministers.<\/p>\n
Varma is one of several dozen people accused in a fodder
\nscandal in the mineral-rich eastern state of Bihar.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Bihar governor authorized federal police to
\nprosecute Varma and the state chief minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav,
\nin the corruption scandal.<\/p>\n
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was expected to
\nindict Varma, Yadav and 54 others in the case later yesterday or
\ntoday, officials told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The CBI had required permission from the state governor to
\npursue legal proceedings against Yadav and Varma. The charges
\nagainst Yadav will carry a maximum penalty of seven years in
\njail, CBI officials said.<\/p>\n
Both Yadav, who is president of Gujral's Janata Dal party, and
\nVarma have said they are innocent in the scandal, which dates
\nback to the 1980s and involved the alleged siphoning off of
\nanimal welfare funds.<\/p>\n
Varma was not immediately available for comment. The Press
\nTrust of India quoted the junior minister on Thursday as saying
\nhe would abide by the prime minister's direction but did not see
\nthe need to resign immediately.<\/p>\n
The scandal has stoked tension in the Janata Dal, which is the
\nbiggest group in Gujral's 15-party United Front coalition, and
\nconfronted the prime minister with his biggest political
\nchallenge since he took office in late April.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Yadav applied for bail to prevent his possible
\narrest. Yadav's lawyer, Chitaranjan Kumar Sinha, told reporters
\nin the state capital Patna that his client had been falsely
\nimplicated in the scandal.<\/p>\n
Yadav is locked in a party election tussle with challenger
\nSharad Yadav, no relation of the Bihar chief minister but a key
\nrival in the low-caste Yadav community to which they both belong.<\/p>\n
Mutual mistrust over party electoral proceedings has spilled
\nover to courtrooms.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the Supreme Court appointed two senior Janata Dal
\nleaders, Madhu Dandvate and Information and Broadcasting Minister
\nJaipal Reddy, to hold party elections by July 3.<\/p>",
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