Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy was on Friday explicit in sending across the message — fall in line with cabinet decisions or face the axe — to his bitter critic and health minister D.L. Ravindra Reddy.
In an informal chat with mediapersons here, the CM referred to a Supreme Court judgment in a case pertaining to former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda which ruled that a minister should fall in line with the Cabinet decisions or else he or she should be dropped from the Cabinet.
Asked what action he would take against Dr Reddy, the CM replied, rather diplomatically, “What mistake has he committed for me to take action against him.”
He laughed it off when a reporter brought to his notice that the health minister submitted his resignation to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi several months ago stating that he could not ill afford to continue in such a Cabinet that has failed to deliver results to the people.
The CM stressed the spirit of collective responsibility and sought to differentiate between Mopidevi Venkata-ramana who was already arrested by the CBI in the Jagan case and Dharmana Prasada Rao who got a breather with the Cabinet recommending the Gover-nor not to sanction prosecution against him. He skipped a reply when asked if the recommendation was binding on the Governor.
The CM said the CBI never sought permission to prosecute Mr Venkataramana who resigned as minister by the time he was arrested and CBI itself told the court that his case was different from that of Mr Rao.
Asked whether Mr Rao’s resignation would be rejected, Mr Reddy said not accepting the resignation would amount to it.