The all-powerful Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi prevailed over the collective will of the Prime Minister, the Union Cabinet and the UPA allies forcing the Government to dump the Ordinance on convicted lawmakers.
The same Cabinet, which recently passed the Ordinance, bowed to the Congress vice-president’s wish on Wednesday after Rahul reportedly told Manmohan Singh that the people’s opinion was against the Ordinance and the Congress Core Group later endorsed Rahul’s view. The Cabinet also decided to withdraw the related Bill, which is pending with the Standing Committee of Parliament.
This is one of rarest cases where the Centre has been forced by an individual to take back a measure that was earlier cleared both by the ruling party and the Council of Ministers. The decision came on a day of hectic consultations at the highest levels among the Congress, angry allies and the Government on how to bring a closure to the raging controversy after Rahul’s denunciation of the Ordinance as “complete nonsense” that deserved to be “torn and thrown away”.
In addition to holding talks with Rahul and attending the Congress Core Group meeting chaired by party chief Sonia Gandhi, the PM also called on President Pranab Mukherjee and discussed the matter with Attorney general Goolam Vahanvati. “The Union Cabinet unanimously decided that the Ordinance regarding certain aspects of the Representation of the People Act as well as the Bill (pending in Parliament) should be withdrawn,” Information & Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told reporters.
The Cabinet had approved on September 24 the Ordinance which sought to negate the Supreme Court order of July 10 which ruled that any lawmaker would stand immediately disqualified if convicted by a court. The development has left the PM in an embarrassing situation and clearly shows that Rahul was more powerful than Manmohan Singh even in the affairs of the Government.
Sources said that at the Core Group meet leaders pointed out that Ordinance should be withdrawn in view of the adverse public opinion. The same core group had cleared the Ordinance even when a host of critics were still talking against the Ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers.
In the morning, when Rahul met the Prime Minister, he is understood to have explained the reasons for opposing the ordinance. Rahul is also reported to have expressed regret to the PM over his “public” outburst against the Ordinance. On way back from the US, the Prime Minister told reporters accompanying him that he would try to find out the reason why Rahul made a public statement and “why it had to be done that way”.
After PM-Rahul talks and Congress Core Group meet, the Prime Minister spoke to leaders of allied parties like Sharad Pawar, Farood Abdullah and Ajit Singh (RlD) and informed them about the intent to withdraw the Ordinance.