May 3: The government is finding it difficult to defend telecom minister A. Raja over the alleged 2G spectrum allocation scam in Parliament. There are compulsion in coalition politics that we have to face, UPA managers concede privately.
Their condition has worsened as the DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi, after landing in New Delhi, immediately disapproved suggestions for Mr Raja’s resignation.
The Opposition might have succeeded in compelling the government to drop ex-minister Shashi Tharoor from the Cabinet on the IPL controversy, but they will find it difficult to mount pressure on the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Mr Raja’s case.
In the coalition rule, the Prime Minister has virtually no say to decide who should be in his Cabinet from the allies. It may be recalled that ex-Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpyaee had to drop Suresh Prabhu from his Cabinet during the NDA regime for the simple reason as the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray wanted him to be out without any cases or charges.
Therefore, the fate of Union minister Raja would be decided by Mr Karunanidhi alone.
The DMK supremo, who has been camping in the national capital since Sunday, came out in Mr Raja’s defence on a day Parliament was rocked by demands for his resignation on Monday.
He charged the Opposition parties with levelling “malicious charges” against Mr Raja just because he is a dalit. “Raja is a dalit. That is why dominant forces are levelling malicious charges against him,” he said when asked for his comments on the Opposition demands for his resignation in the wake of the alleged 2G spectrum scam. He, however, refused to entertain more questions on the controversy. It was not clear whether the spectrum issue was discussed during the meeting he had with Dr Singh and the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi separately. If the DMK insiders are to be believed, the issue did not come up during Mr Karunanidhi’s meeting with Mrs Gandhi in the morning.
Mr Karunanidhi’s comments came a day after he ruled out demands for Mr Raja’s resignation. The DMK has been maintaining that Mr Raja will not resign and that he is being targeted by vested interests. During his meeting with Mrs Gandhi, Mr Karunanidhi dema-nded quick steps to get the Women’s Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha at the earliest. The DMK chief said, “I told Sonia Gandhi that steps should be taken to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill as soon as possible.” Asked whether he discussed any political issue with Mrs Gandhi, the DMK chief said, “There is more time for the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu to come.”