PM Manmohan Singh may ask LawMin Ashwani Kumar to put in his papers

NEW DELHI: Law Minister Ashwani Kumar’s continuance in office appears increasingly untenable as a dominant section in Congress feels he will prove to be a major embarrassment to the party after the Central Bureau of Investigation explains in a fresh affidavit to the Supreme Court all the changes made in the coal allocation case.

A senior leader told ET that the Congress party expects Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was responsible for Ashwani Kumar getting the plum portfolio in the October 2012 reshuffle, to step in and direct the law minister to put in his papers. With the Opposition making it plain that it will not pull its punches and persist in its demand for Kumar’s resignation, the central government does not have too many options, said the leader, who did not wish to be named. The party does not want to be seen as standing by an errant minister, especially when the trail seems to be leading right up to the doorstep of the prime minister, the leader added.

The apex court had on Tuesday indicated that the minister had overstepped his brief by convening the meeting with the CBI officials to preview the status report on the probe into the coal allocations before it was filed with the Supreme Court. The court cited a 1997 verdict to stress that only the supervising ministry could give broad policy directions to the CBI regarding a class of cases and seek updates on the progress of investigation. In this case, the CBI’s supervising ministry is not law, but the department of personnel and training.

What doesn’t augur well for the law minister is that he does not have too many supporters within the party. The lawyerturned-politician is believed to have rubbed many of his colleagues the wrong way.

The turn of events has forced a U-turn on part of the Congress, which appeared confident in the fist half of the budget session that the storm would blow over and the charges would not stick or have any kind of connect with the ordinary voters. “When I go to the villages in my constituency, people ask me what is this new toothpaste (coalgate) BJP is talking about? We don’t understand,” a senior Congress leader had said then, indicating that the issue did not have traction, especially in the rural constituencies considered to be the party’s boroughs.

However, faced with a rebuke from the apex court over the issue of the status report, the Congress cannot hope to put the blame on either an errant coalition partner (as in the 2G spectrum scam) or on “overzealous” auditors (as in the case of the CAG report on presumptive losses in 2G and coalgate).

The timing of the controversy couldn’t have been worse for the ruling party: polling is due in Karnataka elections this week and major states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are set to go to the polls over the next six months.

With so much ammunition at its disposal, the Opposition is relishing the prospect of firing at the beleaguered government. Congress’ discomfiture became quite evident as news of Supreme Court’s observations poured in on Tuesday, with the party for once making no attempt to brush aside the criticism.