After the BJP came to power in 2003, a high-power committee, headed by a former High Court judge, was set up to enquire into the irregularities committed by Tiwari during his ten-year tenure. The committee submitted its report in 2006. The committee discovered several irregularities in making appointments, throwing all norms and rules to the wind.

The probe committee also recommended CBI enquiry against Tiwari.

Ishwardas Rohani, who succeeded Tiwari, decided to cold-storage the report. He also made several appointments, which can be termed irregular. Rohani passed away on the eve of the 2013 Vidhan Sabha elections. During Rohani's 10-year term, the state was ruled by three Chief Ministers - Uma Bharati, Babulal Gaur and Shivraj Singh Chauhan. It appears all of them did not press for the CBI enquiry against Tiwari. For more than 13 months after the constitution of new Vidhan Sabha in November 2013, no initiative was taken to order a probe against Tiwari.

The new speaker, Dr. Sitasharan Sharma nor the three time Chief Minister Chauhan realised that several irregularities were committed by Tiwari. They woke up to this fact only after Digvijay Singh filed a complaint against Chief Minister Chauhan regarding his involvement in the Vyapam scam. It is a well-known fact that Tiwari's period was the darkest period of Vidhan Sabha. He used his power to influence not only the working of the Vidhan Sabha but used to derive several benefits from the government. Whatever may be the facts about irregularities committed by Tiwari, Digvijay Singh can't be blamed for them. Because in the matters relating to the Vidhan Sabha, the Speaker is supreme. Nobody can question his decision, including the Chief Minister.

The state Congress has already dubbed the filing of FIR against Digvijay and Tiwari as an act of political vendetta and declared that it would not be cowed down by such 'hollow threats.' The party said that jail was the proper place for Shivraj and that it would not rest till the chief minister's misdeeds were fully exposed. Digvijay Singh has thanked the chief minister for the 'birthday gift'.

It would be wrong to presume that this kind of vindictive politics affects only the politicians involved. Indirectly, it affects the people also.

Just take the example of the ongoing slanging match over Vyapam. It has already claimed the debate on the annual budget in the Vidhan Sabha. Controlling the earning and expenditure of the government is one of the most important functions of legislature. According to our constitution, the government cannot spend a single paisa without the approval of legislature. Monitoring, controlling and scrutinising the budget is one of the most important duties of the legislature. But the budget was passed within minutes and the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha allowed the government to spend more than Rs one lakh crore as per its will. Perhaps both the government and the opposition should be held guilty for their failure to perform the constitutional duty.

First, the opposition did not allow the Chief Minister to reply to the discussion on the motion of thanks on Governor's address and then the ruling party decided to take revenge by creating disorder in the House. The Speaker Sitasharan Sharma played the role scripted for him perfectly and adjourned the House sine die on February 26, after guillotining the debate on the budget. The 36-day budget session, which had begun on February 18 and was to last till March 27, concluded in just nine days.

But the opposition lost this crucial opportunity and an important legislative process was sacrificed on the altar of competitive politics.

Besides the passage of budget without a minute of discussion, the forced adjournment of the session also meant that hundreds of questions of the MLAs remained unanswered and adjournment and calling-attention motions could not be tabled. Many of them could have made the government do a course-correction, exposed irregularities or corruption of government servants and thus served public interest.

The opposition Congress was definitely guilty of breaching the well-established tradition that when the leader of House or the leader of the Opposition is speaking, he is allowed to have his say without any let or disturbance. But what the ruling party did was worse. Its members created mayhem in the House under a well-planned strategy. The state BJP chief Nandkumar Chauhan frankly admitted that he had directed his party MLAs 'not to allow anyone to speak'. He said, 'Our leader was not being allowed to speak. How long this could continue? So I asked our members not to allow anyone to speak'. He also made a rather bizarre, childish and irresponsible statement. He said, 'Running the Vidhan Sabha may be the duty of the BJP government but it is not its compulsion'. (IPA Service)