The Union Cabinet is expected to meet on October 3 or 4, after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s return from the US, with a near certainty about a decision to recall the controversial Ordinance on convicted lawmakers.
The Congress, for its part, embarked on a damage control mission on Saturday and sought to placate Manmohan Singh by hailing him for ‘convincing’ the US on the issue of terror even as it launched a counter attack on the BJP for its “doublespeak” on the Ordinance.
Union Ministers Kamal Nath and Rajiv Shukla indicated at the likely fate of the Ordinance saying Rahul expressed the view of many people in the Congress and that the party’s job is to give direction to the Government. Shukla also maintained, “In the last six decades, there have been a number of occasions, when party has got the Government’s stand changed. Government always owes explanation to the party because the party is the one, which decides the policies and guides the Government.”
Nath termed the divergence of views as normal and healthy, and did not undermine the PM's authority. “The BJP is doing a drama,” he said. Congress’s damage control mission saw Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh “compliment PM for convincing the US and others that leT is a global terror threat”.
“I hope Pakistan will take a note of that and act decisively," Singh tweeted after reports suggested US President Barack Obama promised to take up with Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif in a “frank” manner the issue of continued Pakistan-based terror directed against India after talks with Singh. He said Rahul's attack on the Ordinance "punctured BJP's doublespeak". "It (BJP) had agreed to the amendment in an all-party meeting," he said. After his outburst, Rahul had on Friday himself reached out to the PM saying he has the "greatest admiration" for his leadership in extremely difficult circumstances. "I hope you will understand the strength of my own conviction about this very controversial issue," he had said in his letter.
Rahul, who had publicly called the Ordinance to protect convicted MPs and MlAs from immediate disqualification as complete nonsense, said he realised that what he felt about the Ordinance was not in harmony with the Cabinet's decision and the Core Group's view. PMO sources had said the letter was written by Gandhi after his public criticism of the Government on the Ordinance issue here in the afternoon. The Congress had made the letter public hours after Gandhi made the comments attacking the Government's position and the Prime Minister had disclosed that he had received a communication from the party vice-president. Congress president Sonia Gandhi also spoke to the PM over telephone.