Re-instated Indian Canadian minister quit within a day

VANCOUVER - In a bizarre turn of events, Indian Canadian minister Kash Heed, who was re-instated as solicitor-general of British Columbia province in Canada Tuesday after his exoneration in poll-related allegations, quit once again.

One of the three Indian Canadian ministers in Canada - the two others being federal parliamentary secretary Deepak Obhrai and Ontario province minister Harinder Takhar - Kash Heed had resigned last month after allegations of code violations during his May 2009 poll campaign.

Even as investigators charged his three poll managers, Heed was cleared of any wrong-doing Monday, leading to his re-instatement in the provincial government Tuesday.

Heed’s second resignation Wednesday was triggered after it came out that special investigator Terry Robertson, who cleared the Indian Canadian leader of any poll-related fraud, belonged to a law firm which had donated $1,000 to his election campaign.

The investigator quit just after giving clean chit to the Indian Canadian leader Tuesday, citing a potential conflict of interest. With the resignation of the investigator putting him in an embarrassing situation, Kash Heed too quit his ministerial post Wednesday.

“My resignation takes effect right now,” said Heed.

His boss Premier Gordon Campbell, who is away in Europe, expressed his surprise over the turn of events for his government.

“I just couldn’t believe it…it is a fundamental failure in what should have been taking place. We are going to have to review how this happened and all the details of it,” the local media quoted the premier who is equivalent to a chief minister in an Indian state.

A highly respected cop, Kash Heed had quit as chief of the West Vancouver Police Department at the urging of the premier to contest the May 2009 elections.

Immediately after his victory, he was appointed the top cop of British Columbia which has the largest concentration of the Indian community in Canada. Kash Heed (from Kashmir Singh Heer) is the third-generation Indian Canadian whose grandfather came to Canada from Punjab.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)