The Newshour Debate: #CrackAtTheTop

The government was faced with an embarrassing situation over reports that claimed that Rajnath Singh's son Pankaj had been ticked off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an alleged "misconduct", prompting the Home Minister as well as the PMO to issue strong denials. Scotching the "rumours", Singh asserted that he would quit politics if even "prima facie" it is proved that any of his family member had been involved in any misconduct. His statement came in the wake of a report which said he was upset with stories that claimed his son was pulled up by Modi for an alleged "misconduct". Singh said rumours about alleged wrong doings by his family members have been floating around for the last fortnight. The Home Minister said he has talked to Modi and BJP President Amit Shah about it and both of them expressed surprise and termed the rumours as completely baseless. Simultaneously, the PMO also issued a statement, rubbishing the reports and dubbing them as "plain lies, motivated and malicious attempt" to tarnish the image of the government. The denials came in the wake of a media report that Rajnath Singh was unhappy over rumours being spread by "a ministerial colleague" and "party rival" about his son being pulled up by the Prime Minister over some alleged misconduct. Asked who could be floating the rumours, Singh said that was something for the investigative journalists to find out. On the possibility of a political rival spreading these rumours, the Home Minister parried a direct reply, saying, "I have nothing to say on this." The Home Minister denied that he has complained to the RSS about these rumours. However, the opposition was eager to fish in the troubled waters with Congress taking potshots at the government and asking it to spell out as to what the allegations were about. CPI leader D Raja said, "Without any fire, there cannot be any smoke. It shows there are lot of things there is internal strife the politics is changing." He said the denials by the PMO and H