The Congress-led UPA government faced its worst ever political crisis after the Supreme Court on Tuesday ripped apart the CBI for showing the Coalgate investigation report to the government before submitting it to a judge.
Coming down heavily on the agency, the court told the CBI “not to take instructions from your political masters”. In a scathing attack, the top court described the sharing of the draft probe report by the CBI as a “massive breach of trust that has shaken our foundation”.
The court’s strong observations seemed to have put the government in the dock with the entire Opposition demanding the resignation of Union law minister Ashwani Kumar. There had been a flurry of activity in the Congress camp with the law minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political adviser, Mr Ahmed Patel, meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. While no decision has yet been taken to remove the law minister, some feel that the government might not buckle under pressure. “It will give the Opposition a handle then to demand the PM’s scalp. Also, sacking the law minister before the Karnataka polls is not advisable,” a senior Congress leader said. However, some party MPs feel otherwise. The Left has also demanded the resignation of JPC chairman P.C. Chacko along with the law minister.
Problems mounted for the government as additional solicitor-general Haren Raval resigned on Tuesday. On Monday, in a hard-hitting letter to attorney general G.E. Vahanvati, Mr Raval had said he has been made a scapegoat in the matter. He also accused Mr Vahanvati of trying to interfere in the CBI’s report on its probe of the coal block allocation scam.
The trouble began with both the attorney-general and additional solicitor-general concealing the fact from the Supreme Court that the content of the CBI status report was known to them. This has been
claimed in Mr Raval’s letter to Mr Vahanvati. “While replying to the queries on 12 March as to what was contained in the status report, you had deemed it appropriate to take a stand that the contents of the status report were not known to you, which fact you knew to be incorrect,” Mr Raval’s letter read. The additional solicitor-general went on to state that he was “embarrassed and was forced to take a stand in the court consistent with your submission made as Attorney-General for India that the contents of the status report were not known to you and that they were not shared with the government.” The Supreme Court observed that “suppression” of the fact that the CBI shared the probe report with the government “is not ordinary”. Speculation was rife that the government also wanted CBI director Ranjit Sinha to follow its lead. The CBI chief was reportedly advised by his close associate not to do so.
Under attack for sharing the report, the CBI director admitted that “changes were made in the draft report”, and added: “I am a part of the government. I am not an autonomous body. I have not shown it to any outside person. I have shown it to the law minister of the country. I will inform the Supreme Court about any situation arising out of that. The decision of Supreme Court will be acceptable.” Apparently changes were made in two stages, first by the law minister and then by a joint-secretary-level officer in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), sources said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, responding to the Supreme Court’s remarks, said “any action required will be taken after we study the observations”. Leading the charge, the BJP did not merely attack the government but also decided to boycott all meetings called by the Lok Sabha Speaker and the parliamentary affairs minister. However, for the BJP, the law minister is just a stepping stone to fire at its main target, Dr Manmohan Singh. The BJP on Tuesday said the “public spat” between the A-G and the ASG reinforces its view that the PM should own responsibility and step down.
While Congress leaders searched for words, party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi admitted that the court’s observation “is not a pleasant comment for any dispensation, for any composition of the government”.