Kamal Nath, Shivraj Chouhan trade barbs in MP Assembly over using and hiring planes

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and his predecessor, Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the BJP, took digs at each other in the Assembly on Wednesday in an attempt to take the high moral ground on hiring, or lack of it, aircraft and helicopters instead of using the state government’s flying machines.

The two leaders were in the House when Congress MLA Rajvardhan Singh moved a calling attention motion on why the state government spent crores on hiring private planes when government aircraft remained parked at the state hangar. Singh said the government could have bought a new plane for Rs 42 crore spent on hiring aircraft between 2014 and 2018, and another Rs 11 crore by selling an old aircraft that has remained grounded.

Chouhan was the chief minister between 2005 and 2018.

Chief Minister Nath intervened and referred to the previous day’s calling attention motion on the government’s move to sell off an aircraft and a helicopter and buy a new aircraft. He claimed that Tuesday’s motion implied that the flying machines were being sold because the state government wants to hire aircraft from an aviation company his (Nath’s) family members owns. Nath said the previous BJP government decided to sell the aircraft and chopper. He also mentioned that although he has used planes from the company in question, he has not billed a paisa to the government.

According to Nath, during the 15-year BJP rule, the company (owned by his family) did not lend its planes to the state government even though there were multiple requests. He said he was hurt by the implied allegations since his political career spanning 45 years has been without a blemish.

Chouhan responded by saying that he worked differently and flew often because he would rush to attend to people’s grievances during natural calamities. “The Chief Minister (Nath) has a style of his own — he doesn’t go (to the field), but I did,’’ he replied, with Opposition members thumping their desks. Chouhan also advised Nath not to bother about allegations and said a CM has to take these in his strides — the way he did when he was in that post. “A CM should not remain tense. Your government will last as long as it has to,” he added.

Taking a dig at Chouhan, who was often slammed by the Congress for promoting himself in the media, Nath said: “I don’t do politics of television and media. I don’t want to be seen on TV, or have my pictures appear in print. I don’t believe in publicity. My style is different because I want to find a solution, to provide relief.”

Chouhan replied that governments come and go but it will not be proper to discuss how many hours a CM spent flying. He said he did not use the state’s single-engine helicopter because chief ministers were discouraged from flying in that machine after the death of former Andhra Pradesh CM Y S R Reddy in a crash in 2009.

“It would be injustice if you dig out minute-by-minute information like how many hours one flew, how much time it took to reach a particular place, or how many cups of tea were consumed,’’ said Chouhan, inviting the government to carry out a probe if it has to.

At one point, Congress legislator Rajvardhan said he wants to inform the house that Nath used his private planes even for official tours and bore the expenses. Calling Nath a “capitalist,’’ Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava of the BJP claimed Chouhan, son of a poor farmer, was being made fun of because he could not afford to spend on his travel from his pocket like Nath.