Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s intervention to speed up action against the two tainted Union ministers has given rise to speculation of a growing distance between the Prime Minister and the party.
After Mrs Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday afternoon and reportedly made it clear that a decision had to be taken on the tainted ministers, law minister Ashwani Kumar and railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s fates were sealed.
The Prime Minister had reportedly been insisting on shifting the law minister rather than dropping him. The PM had also taken a public position against sacking the law minister. On April 26, Dr Singh had gone on record to say, “There is no question of the law minister resigning. The matter is sub-judice.” Both Mr Bansal and Mr Ashwani Kumar, considered “lightweights”, were Dr Singh’s “personal choices for two key ministries”, sources said.
Incidentally, with the law minister also resigning, the BJP-led Opposition will now shift focus to the Prime Minister and press for his resignation. The BJP has been demanding the resignation of Dr Singh, who was also coal minister between 2006 and 2009, when many of the controversial sales occurred.
Sources disclosed that with the tacit backing of the Prime Minister both ministers had shown no inclination to quit till the Congress president stepped in. The divide between the party and the PM had been growing over the delay in taking action against the ministers.
During Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, some ministers questioned the delay in sacking the railway minister, against whom allegations continued to mount each day. Sources disclosed that the PM was virtually told that retaining Mr Bansal was rapidly becoming “untenable”. It was learnt there was “no response” from Dr Singh. The Congress, however, strongly denied any rift between the party and the PM.
A section in the party wanted the railway minister to quit a day after his nephew, Mr Vijay Singla, was arrested on bribery charges by the CBI. The railway minister indicated that he was not willing to quit since no action was taken against the law minister, sources said.
Pressure mounted, but Mr Ashwani Kumar and Mr Bansal dug in their heels. The delay also continued to damage the party’s image, a Congress leader said. Sources said it was also the PM who continued to “drag his feet” on the issue. Both the law minister and the railway minister are known in government as “the PM’s men”. Some key Congress ministers were certain that action would be taken against the law minister if the Supreme Court came down heavily on the concerned ministry for meddling in the CBI’s draft probe report on the Coalgate scam on May 8. However, eyebrows were raised when, even after a tongue-lashing by the top court, the PM refused to act against the law minister.
While some felt the PM had refused to “toe the party line and sack his tainted men”, the other school of thought in the party indicated that the PMO was of the view that the prompt sacking of the law minister would shift the entire focus onto the PM. A delay was apparently advised. However, voices continued to grow within the party against these two ministers and the PMO over the delay. It was at this moment that the Congress president decided to step in to contain the damage.
After the Karnataka victory, and with elections approaching in key states like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, the Congress high command wanted to take the moral high ground and decided to act against the controversial ministers.