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ShareNew Delhi: With the CBI noose tightening around National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (NCSC) chairman Buta Singh in a bribery case involving his son, the politician is playing the Dalit card to wriggle out of the controversy.
After vehemently defending his son Sarabjot aka Sweety and himself and calling it a "political conspiracyby the CBI", Singh alleged on Tuesday "enemies of Dalits" had ganged up to frame him. He said he would rather "give up his life" than resign as NCSC chairman.
Calling himself a saviour of Dalits, the former Union home minister said, "Throughout my life, I have raised issues concerning scheduled castes and tribes in and outside parliament. I will not stop doing that. If anyone asks me to resign, I will give up my life."
The CBI had arrested Sarabjot on Friday for "accepting a bribe of Rs1 crore from Nashik-based contractor Ramrao Patil". The bribe was allegedly the first installment of the Rs3 crore Sweety had demanded from Patil to withdraw a case being probed by NCSC. Sweety was arrested after Patil lodged a complaint with the CBI.
Buta Singh, who was closely associated with the Congress for most of his five-decade-long political career before he recently fell out of favour with the top leadership, continued to embarrass the party by describing himself as a "Congress loyalist, driven by the party's ideology".
The Congress has been trying to distance itself from him after the controversy. On Monday, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi clarified that Singh was a constitutional functionary, not a party man since he had been expelled from the Congress for contesting the recent Lok Sabha election against its official nominee from Jalore, Rajasthan.
Singh, however, maintained, "My work and my thoughts reflect the Congress ideology. What I have learnt in my life is Congress ideology. I will not leave it."
But he parried questions on whether he discussed the bribery case with Congress president Sonia Gandhi."Why do you ask me such questions? Why should I meet anyone on this matter? Should I beg?" he said.
