Sibal gets Law, Joshi Railways, oppn steps up pressure on PM

NEW DELHI: A day after the resignations of Union ministers Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Bansal, the Congress entrusted the law and railways portfolios to its two reliable lieutenants with a clean slate – telecom minister Kapil Sibal and road transport minister CP Joshi. While Joshi had briefly held the railways portfolio last year after the exit of Trinamool Congress nominee Mukul Roy, Sibal, an eminent lawyer, will get an opportunity to handle the law ministry for the first time. There is speculation in political circles about a composite reshuffle of the council of ministers. The party is likely to take a decision in a meeting of its core group.

Meanwhile, the Opposition BJP sharpened its attack on the prime minister, Manmohan Singh asking him to do an honest introspection and step down, saying that it “is the only option” for him. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, BJP president Rajnath Singh said, “If the prime minister does an honest introspection, then resignation is the only option for him.” He asked the prime minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi whether there was any place left for ethics and principles in politics or will ministers step down only after the Supreme Court makes adverse comments. Singh sought early elections. The BJP also announced a nation-wide “court arrest agitation” from May 27 to June 2.

The BJP president also targeted former for law minister Kumar: “The heart of the report [CBI report on the coal mines allocation scam] was changed. We want to know from Ashwani Kumar in whose defence he was making the changes.... He should tell us why he had to become the scapegoat. Whom was he trying to save and to protect whom he had to resign?” Even as the prime minister came under sharp attack, UPA ally NCP rallied behind the Prime Minister. It rejected the BJP’s argument that had the ministers resigned earlier, it could have saved the Parliament session.

“They [BJP] were disrupting the Parliament much before the demand of the resignation of these ministers,” NCP general secretary D P Tripathi said. “The ministers have resigned on the question of constitutional morality, as decided by the Prime Minister. It is good that they have resigned to set a precedent for good governance and constitutional morality,” he said.

For his part, Ashwani Kumar put up a brave front on Saturday claiming he quit to end an “unnecessary” controversy and maintained that the Supreme Court had made no adverse comments against him in the case of vetting a CBI graft probe report.