The Government and Congress on Monday brazenly defended both Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and law Minister Ashwani Kumar by using the pretext of the Food Security Bill to charge the Opposition BJP with working against the interest of poor by disrupting Parliament.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath staunchly rejected the demand for Bansal’s resignation saying, “The probe is going on. The truth should come out. It is a bad tradition to ask for any resignations before the probe is complete.” He cited that the BJP in the past had refused to act against its former president Nitin Gadkari when charges were made against him.
Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury dismissed the charges of double standards and using different yardsticks as far as probity is considered since it had made former DMK Ministers A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran to resign while not conceding similar demands for its own Ministers. She said that one should not cast aspersions or pre-judge the issue.
“let’s wait for the conclusion of the ongoing probe to take appropriate action. It is an ongoing developing situation. We need to wait till we get any answers and ascertain facts. We should not pre-maturely jump the gun,” she said.
Regarding Ashwani Kumar’s fate, both Renuka and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said that the party would wait the Supreme Court hearing on the matter on May 8.
“One cannot draw a line and expect the law Minister to shut his eyes and ears. It is not possible. Keeping in mind the situation and the context, whatever is correct or not, has to be decided by the law Minister. Who else will decideIJ” Khurshid said in defence of Kumar.
The party is not ready to sacrifice Bansal like former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan till the time a probe found him guilty, sources said. Moreover, it cannot sacrifice Bansal and at the same time save Kumar to who is being strongly supported by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, they pointed out.
Meanwhile, facing opposition charge of bringing food Security Bill just to divert attention from scams, both Nath and Renuka launched a counter offensive and charged the BJP disrupting Parliament as a diversionary tactics so that the Food Security Bill cannot be passed. While Nath reminded the BJP that it was not their Parliament alone, Renuka said that since the Opposition does not have courage to openly say that it doesn’t want the Bills which will benefit lakhs of people and farmers, so it was disrupting Parliament.