Scam-tainted Razi remains defiant: Assam guv

NEW DELHI: Confident of indulgence from the Congress leadership, Assam governor Syed Sibtey Razi seems to have made up his mind to defy Prime Minister Manmohan Singh���s directive to quit the constitutional post in view of the corruption shadow over his tenure as Jharkhand governor.

Mr Razi, who was in the Capital on Tuesday, ruled out his resignation and claimed that no questions have been raised on his conduct as governor. Denying reports that he had been asked by the prime ministerial establishment to put in his papers, Mr Razi declared, ���I am the governor of Assam and I shall continue to be in charge of the state.���

To further stress that all was well between the Centre and himself, Mr Razi described his meeting with Union home minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday as an exercise to apprise the latter of the security situation in North Cachar Hills. ���As the governor, I have to apprise the minister of security matters concerning my state,��� he told reporters.

Sources in the government, however, insisted that the reality was that the prime ministerial establishment had around 45 days ago conveyed to Mr Razi that his continuation in the constitutional post had become untenable in view of the corrupt deals struck by his aides during his four-and-a-half-year stint in Ranchi.

Realising that Mr Razi would have in no way been oblivious to the corruption in transfers and postings going on around him, the prime minister himself had taken serious note of the governor���s indiscretions.

CBI, which is currently investigating the bribery charges against the Jharkhand Raj Bhavan staff during Mr Razi���s tenure, has apparently gathered enough evidence to confirm the allegations.

An ex-MLA had complained of the corrupt deals being struck in the governor���s house, leading CBI to raid the houses of Razi���s official aides Rajesh Thakur and IAS officer Avinash Kumar. Both officers are now under the lens for amassing wealth disproportionate to their sources of income.

Despite several signals from Delhi over the last month to step down, Mr Razi not only managed to stay put in the Ranchi Raj Bhawan but also managed a transfer in July to a larger state, Assam. That the government now seems reconciled to his continuation at least till October, when his five-year tenure comes to an end, was evident when PMO and home ministry sources denied having sought Razi���s resignation at all.

The development does not augur well for the government as Congress is coming in the way of the efforts of the prime minister to ensure exacting ethical standards in governance. Mr Razi, who hails from Jausa in Rae Bareli, represented by none other than Congress President Sonia Gandhi, is obviously calculating that his defiance of the prime minister will not attract any punishment.