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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Congress makes it clear: Bansal, Ashwani Kumar won’t be resigning
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Congress makes it clear: Bansal, Ashwani Kumar won’t be resigning

I&B minister Manish Tewari says the allegations against railway minister Bansal are being investigated

A file photo of railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint (Ramesh Pathania/Mint)Premium
A file photo of railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint
(Ramesh Pathania/Mint)

New Delhi: The Congress party, which leads the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, on Sunday did not concede demands for the resignations of railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, whose nephew is alleged to have been involved in a bribery case, and law minister Ashwani Kumar, accused of vetting a federal investigation report on irregularities in allocating coal mines.

After a meeting of top leaders led by party chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari told reporters that an investigation was being carried out on the allegations against Bansal.

“It is inappropriate to prejudge its outcome," he said.

The matter of Kumar’s involvement in the probe into the allocation of coal fields is in the courts and the government will convey its response to the Supreme Court through its law officers when the matter is brought up there, Tewari said.

Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday for allegedly taking a bribe of 90 lakh to arrange the promotion of a railway officer. Bansal has distanced himself from this, saying nobody could influence his decisions, and sought an expeditious inquiry by the CBI into the issue.

Opposition parties aren’t buying his explanation.

“Singla is his (Bansal’s) own nephew and takes care of his campaigning work in Chandigarh. Crores of rupees are being taken for each appointment. The Congress party is looting this country and is asking the officials also to do so," said Prakash Javadekar, spokesman for the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“The circumstances that prevail has raised questions about the minister (Bansal). He should own moral responsibility for it and this makes his position as the railway minister untenable," said D. Raja, leader of the Communist Party of India.

The controversy is the latest in a series of accusations and corruption scandals involving political leaders of the Congress-led UPA government.

Protests from opposition parties have blocked the budget session since it was reconvened on 22 April, allowing only the passage of the budget and the finance bill in Parliament last week. Two crucial legislations, food security and land acquisition, are pending.

Political analysts are not hopeful of any legislative business being conducted in the session that will be concluded on 10 May, nor of any new policy initiatives by the government.

The accusation against Bansal comes shortly after opposition parties sought the resignation of law minister Kumar on allegations that he tried to vet a CBI report on irregularities in coal block allocations that it had to submit to the Supreme Court.

The BJP has been seeking the resignation of the Prime Minister as well following allegations that his office and the law minister had vetted the CBI report. The apex court on Wednesday criticised the government and the CBI, saying the federal agency should be free of political interferences.

The CBI has been asked to give a fresh affidavit explaining the nature of the interference at the apex court on Monday.

Exit poll predictions that the Congress is heading for a victory in the 5 May Karnataka state assembly election seem to have given some relief to the party. The party leadership has convened a meeting of its parliamentarians and spokespersons.

As a part of its damage control efforts, the Congress has appointed three more spokespersons for the party. The party’s spokespersons now are P.C. Chacko, Renuka Choudhary, Sandeep Dikshit, Raj Babbar, Mohan Prakash, Bhakta Charan Das, Meem Afzal and Shakeel Ahmad.

“Things like these will have implications on coming elections but the frequency of such scams is so much that one cannot wait or prolong the decision of taking actions on it," said D.L. Sheth, political analyst and former director of the New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

“This cannot get any more difficult for them (Congress party) but it seems as if nothing affects them. The only thing that can possibly happen now is the fall of the government but no other political party is really in the favour of early elections," he said. The national election is scheduled for next year.

New Delhi-based political analyst N. Bhaskara Rao, however, is of the view that the Congress can still salvage its image with some drastic changes.

“New branding is required for the government, a new and untarnished face should lead the government," said Rao, who has been closely following developments in the Congress for more than four decades. “The party should identify its emotional issue, whether it is secularism, good governance or pro-poor policies, etc. It should not close doors to any allies."

Parliament has been disrupted also over the joint parliamentary committee’s report absolving both Singh and finance minister P. Chidambaram of any wrongdoing in the second-generation spectrum allocation scam.

Opposition members have demanded the resignation of P.C. Chacko, Congress leader and chief of the committee, for this report.

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Published: 05 May 2013, 09:30 PM IST
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