A day after her deputy in the party, Rahul Gandhi, ticked off the Maharashtra Government for rejecting the judicial commission’s report on Adarsh housing scam, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday advised the media to also look at the corruption in States ruled by other parties and the involvement of some of their Ministers.
“The media was free to point out mistakes of Congress Governments but it should look at corruption in States run by other parties as well,” Sonia said at the party’s foundation day at AICC headquarters. Indicating that the Maharashtra Government would reconsider its decision to reject the judicial commission’s report on Adarsh housing scam, Sonia said: “That has been decided and I think it is going to be resolved.”
The Maharashtra Cabinet had last week rejected the report of the two-member commission headed by retired High Court judge JA Patil indicting several politicians including three former Chief Ministers for “blatant violations” of statutory provisions in the Adarsh Housing.
Rahul on Friday disapproved of the Maharashtra Government’s decision to reject the report by stating that he personally did not agree with that decision. “They (Maharashtra) should reconsider that,” was his remarks at the AICC Press conference after his daylong meeting with 12 Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled States. Pressed by the media, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who was present on the occasion, said he will discuss with Cabinet and then decide.
For her part, replying to a question about BJP’s criticism that Rahul Gandhi instead of going before media could have directly told Maharashtra Chief Minister to reconsider the State Cabinet’s decision rejecting the Adarsh panel report, Congress general secretary Ambika Soni said, “Who knows he (Rahul) must have talked to the Chief Minister. He is vice-president (of the party). He holds personal interactions with all CMs,” she said. Asked whether the Union Cabinet of Maharashtra will reconsider its earlier decision, Soni said that there is an alliance Government in the State and what is necessary will be done in consultation with the coalition partner.