Congress non-committal on fate of P K Bansal, Ashwani Kumar

NEW DELHI: Congress today remained non-committal on the fate of Union Ministers P K Bansal, whose nephew was arrested on bribery charge, and Ashwani Kumar accused of altering the CBI probe report on Coalgate.

"Don't jump the gun.....till we get more conclusive evidence.....We need to wait before we get the information...It is not in our interest to sit in judgement till we get facts", party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury told reporters.

She was replying to a volley of questions as to why the Congress leadership had given reprieve to the Railway Minister and the Law Minister despite growing demands for their removal.

"Prematurely jumping the gun is not judicious. Uniform and steady is our approach,", she said dismissing opposition charges that Congress was adopting different yardsticks for different leaders.

Speaking separately, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath spoke in a similar vein. "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," Nath told reporters when asked about BJP's demand for Bansal's resignation.

"You are talking of Southern splendour. Before you jump the gun, let us see how things develop", Chowdhury said when asked about opposition charges that Congress adopted different yardsticks for former Telecom Ministers A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran of DMK.

Her remarks came close on the heels of BJP stepping up its attack on Congress on corruption issue demanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as also Bansal and Kumar should step down or otherwise people will "throw them out".

Asked how could the party back the Railway Minister as his nephew and constituency manager has been caught on bribery charge and 'he is not any Tom, Dick and Harry', she said "it is for you to investigate. How do you know what your watchman, guard or driver is doing?"

To a question on Kumar, she said it was "not correct" for the party to take any decision when the case concerning him was sub-judice and is to come up in court on wednesday.