The UPA partners and the supporting parties have been maintaining silence on the controversy over the release of Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson after the Bhopal gas tragedy. The issue, however, will dominate the Monsoon Session of Parliament next month.
The Congress, on the other hand, appears to be mounting pressure on its senior leader Arjun Singh to break his silence on this issue which has put the party on the defensive.
The Congress allies in the ruling coalition — DMK, Trinamul Congress, NCP, National Conference — are yet to take a position on this issue while the supporting parties like the Samajwadi Party, BSP and the RJD have so far remained silent.
One can understand why the DMK and the Trinamul Congress are reluctant to take a stand on it because of their state-centric politics but the BSP, Samajwadi Party and even the NCP have presence in Madhya Pradesh.
For the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led party, the release of Mr Anderson may not be an issue in the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls. His priority is to “expose” chief minister Nitish Kumar and create a rift between his Janata Dal (United) and the BJP.
But it will be interesting to see how the UPA partners and supporting parties will face the Opposition attack on the Centre and the Congress during the Monsoon Session of Parliament on this issue.
Meanwhile, Mr Satyavrat Chaturvedi, MP and a member of a Congress Working Committee, on Saturday asked Mr Arjun Singh to speak out. “Arjun Singh should break his silence and come forward to tell whether he stands by the three statements he had made after Anderson left the country,” he told PTI.