Samajwadi Party decries promoting Salman Khurshid, shifting Jaipal Reddy

NEW DELHI: A day after the reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers, outside supporter of the UPA government, the Samajwadi Party, have criticised it. SP said the appointment of Salman Khurshid as external affairs minister was an example of Congress ‘rewarding graft tainted’ ministers.

“Khurshid has been upgraded in a way and he has been made the external affairs minister. If a minister is accused of graft, he should be taken out. A minister who was supposed to be removed, who was directly involved in coal scam, he is still there. Good people should have been promoted,” senior Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav said.

The shifting of senior minister S Jaipal Reddy from the petroleum ministry to science and technology also came in for trenchant criticism from SP. Senior leader Mohan Singh, an old socialist comrade of Reddy called him the most honest minister in the government. “Jaipal Reddy is the most honest minister in this government and several of these corporate lobbies wore down a path to his door trying to get him to change his policies in their favour. When he was unmoved, they managed to pressure the prime minister into removing him from the ministry,” he said.

Asked whether he was defending Reddy because of old socialist ties, Singh replied in the negative. “I have many old socialist comrades about whose honesty I cannot vouch. I can do so for Jaipal Reddy. He has been treated most shabbily, and the signal this sends is that corporate fat cats can significantly influence this government,” he said.