Besides the hero’s welcome which he got, he received support from some powerful persons of the ruling party.

The most important among them was Kailash Vijay Vargiya, former MP Minister and now general secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party. Vijay Vargiya welcomed Sharma and said he is innocent. Ajay Bishnoi also a former minister welcomed Sharma and asserted that the party should not treat him as untouchable. Incidentally Nand Kumar Chauhan, party president in a most carefully drafted statement said that the case will take its course but “I welcome Sharma on his getting bail because he is my old friend. Significance is being attached to these public statements about a person who is facing serious charges.”

But much more important is what he told the media by holding a formal press conference. In a tactical move he defended two RSS stalwarts whose names figured in Vyapam scam. During the investigation it was found that RSS chief late K.S. Sudarshan and Suresh Soni, an important RSS functionary were involved in the scam. Sudarshan and Suresh Soni recommended names of some persons for appointment in the government jobs despites the fact they were not eligible.

Interacting with media Sharma claimed that former RSS chief KS Sudarshan and Sarkaryavah Suresh Soni never made any recommendation for selection of any candidate in examinations conducted by the Vyapam. Sharma said a probe must be initiated to find out how these senior leaders of RSS were linked to the scam. Sharma said the RSS or its leaders had nothing to do with the scam.

Sharma said Sudarshan made only two recommendations in his life to him. The first was regarding establishment of a Hindi University and the second was suggesting the name of a Pundit for holding a ‘Parjanya Yagna’ for rains during drought in the state. The former Minister reiterated that Sudarshan did not make any other recommendation.

He said Soni too never made any recommendation to him in connection with Vyapam. Sharma said it was for the media to find out whether he became the victim of conspiracy. He said allegations about him accepting bribe for selection of candidates were totally baseless. Sharma said during his tenure as Technical Education Minister, he attended a meeting at Vyapam office only once, where he had a cup of tea. Besides this, he did not take anything from Vyapam, he said.

Sharma also thanked the leaders demanding his comeback in the party. He said so far he has neither spoken to any BJP leader nor he had received any phone call in this matter. He reiterated that he had full faith in the CBI and the judiciary and was confident that he would get justice.

It is clear that Sharma has come out in support of the RSS. Earlier, the Police headquarters had also given clean chit to Sudarshan and Soni although STF and SIT have not said anything about the role of the two in Vyapam scam. It was Sharma's tactical move to please the RSS and its leadership.

Meanwhile it is learnt that worried over the security of those exposing corruption, three whistleblowers and an RTI activist from Madhya Pradesh met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi at their official residence in Delhi urging them to mount pressure on the government not to dilute the whistle-blowers protection bill.

Indore-based whistleblower Dr Anand Rai said that they met Rahul Gandhi for over half-an-hour and Sonia Gandhi for over 15 minutes at their 10, Janpath residence. “We were accompanied by senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Apart from RTI activist Ajay Dubey, the other two whistleblowers included Prashant Pandey, a cyber expert and Ashish Chaturvedi, a social activist from Gwalior. Only Ashish didn’t meet Rahul, he said.

Dr Rai said they apprised Sonia Gandhi about the developments in Madhya Pradesh, especially in the context of Vyapam scam. “We told her that the government has already passed the Whistle-blowers Protection Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha and it would now go to Rajya Sabha for its passage. The amendment bill has provisions that will have a detrimental effect on the work of whistleblowers. The amendment will ensure that action could be taken against the whistleblowers if they can’t justify or substantiate their complaint and documents. We urged her that as they have majority in Rajya Sabha, they can exert pressure on the government so that the amendment bill is sent to the select committee and it is not weakened,” he said.

Dr Rai said they told Sonia Gandhi about the security concerns of the whistleblowers in MP, where over 40 people associated with Vyapam scam have been killed or have died under mysterious conditions.

Dr Rai said they are trying to meet the leaders from all opposition parties to seek their support against the amendment in the whistleblowers protection act. “We are seeking time for appointment with Arvind Kejriwal, CPI leaders, JD(U) leaders and other likeminded leaders on this issue,” he added.

Ajay Dubey said it was a fruitful meeting. “Rahul Gandhi showed keen interest in the investigations of Vyapam and asked many questions.

He was curious to know how deaths in Vyapam scam had suddenly stopped, how the investigations were going under CBI and so on.”

BJP state media in-charge Dr Hitesh Bajpai said the three whistleblowers and the activist who met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, were playing the role of proxy Congress because Congress itself was actually defunct.

“These whistleblowers have a common political agenda which has been exposed with these meetings and the photos of these meetings which have started circulating on the social media. They are very selective; they never raise any questions against Congress. Their agenda is clearly pro-Congress,” he said.

While Sharma defended Sudarshan and Soni’s there is a Vyapam whistleblower who alleges that RSS is punishing me for taking names of BJP and RSS leaders involved in Vyapam scam. Ashish Chaturvedi, who claims to be a RSS volunteer said that I have been staying in the RSS state office for long but the day I started taking names of BJP and RSS leaders involved in the Vyapam scam. RSS leaders started mounting pressure on me for not taking the names. The other day Ashish wanted to talk to some RSS leaders he was denied entry in the RSS office. (IPA Service)