By throwing its full weight behind habitual offender Vijay Shah, a senior minister, the Mohan Yadav government in Madhya Pradesh has demonstrated an appetite for impropriety, even at the cost of inviting potential judicial ire.
In May 2025, the minister had called Colonel Sofiya Qureshi a ‘sister’ of terrorists involved in the Pahalgam terror attack. The Colonel was among the spokespersons of the NDA government who briefed the media on India’s strikes against Pakistan.
Nearly 15 months after his abominable remarks sparked nationwide outrage, the minister has escaped any criminal or political action, even though an SIT set up by the apex court has long submitted its report. The BJP government has not sanctioned the prosecution of the motormouth minister.
Vijay Shah Case: How the Yadav Government Chose to Protect Him
Days before the matter is scheduled to come up for hearing in the Supreme Court, the Yadav cabinet decided to protect the minister. Usually, when the Council of Ministers meet, many administrative officials are present either to provide information or an explanation or to record the minutes.
As widely reported in the local media, once the official agenda was over, only a handful of senior bureaucrats were allowed to remain in the room, and the rest were told to leave. Shah was allowed to explain himself, and then asked to leave the room too. Before tabling the SIT
Apparently satisfied with his defence, the other ministers, including Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, discussed steps to meet the legal challenge as the higher judiciary has repeatedly expressed displeasure over the government’s dilly-dallying in the case.
On one pretext or another, the Yadav government had not made its stand on the prosecution sanction clear. During the unofficial meeting, the Cabinet ministers felt that Shah had publicly apologised on four occasions for his remarks, and the punishment was sufficient. They insisted the matter should rest here.
During a hearing in January this year, the Supreme Court learnt that the SIT had submitted its report last year itself, but the Yadav government was sitting on the request for prosecution sanction. The apex court refused to accept the argument that the minister had already apologised, and gave the government two months to decide.
In May, the apex court asked the MP government to abide by the previous orders and gave it four months to file a report on the action taken in the case so far. On July 23, the court was told the government had filed no report so far.
Vijay Shah Case Raises Questions Over Constitutional Impropriety
Unless there’s a last-minute course correction, the government is unlikely to give the go-ahead to prosecute the minister, who has made several controversial remarks in the past too. The only time he was penalised was more than a decade ago, when he was stripped of his ministerial portfolio after an alleged pass at then-incumbent Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s wife.
It’s unclear whether the MP government has yet sent a report to Governor Mangubhai Patel. According to legal experts, the governor’s decision will be crucial in the matter. For the record, after the informal Cabinet meeting ended, PWD Minister Rakesh Singh had claimed that the matter was not discussed at all.
The Opposition Congress, meanwhile, wrote to the President and the Governor seeking their intervention in the matter. Accusing the BJP government of committing a constitutional impropriety (by refusing to grant prosecution sanction), the Congress asserted that a minister who insulted a serving army official was being protected.
Legal experts said the government’s reported refusal to sanction prosecution amounted to contempt of court. According to Supreme Court lawyer Vivek Tankha, the MP Cabinet had no authority to decide whether to prosecute the minister or not because it was contrary to the higher judiciary’s intent.
It may be recalled that the state government was not even keen on initiating proceedings against the minister, but the FIR was filed only because the MP High Court had given a direction to that effect. While the legal proceedings are on, the Yadav government hasn’t even stripped him of the portfolio.
