Sonia sees red, asks dissidents to 'keep quiet'

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday gave a clear message to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s detractors that they should do nothing to destabilise the government, which has been at the centre of a controversy over a land scam.

Three ministers in the Dikshit government — Haroon Yusuf, AK Walia and Arvinder Singh Lovely — who have been accused of being party to a conspiracy to topple the chief minister, met Ms Gandhi and are understood to have been asked to “keep quiet”.

The AICC also quoted the CM as dismissing any plot to destabilise her government with the leadership going all out to project that “all is well” in Delhi despite the Ashok Malhotra affair. “There is no danger to the Delhi government or the Congress,” AICC general secretary in charge of Delhi Ashok Gehlot told reporters, echoing Dikshit’s comment that “nothing of this sort (conspiracy to topple her) has happened”.

He instead trained guns on the BJP by saying the issue of land scam was important and should be probed thoroughly. With the arrest of Malhotra by the CBI, the AICC harped on “individual criminality” and asserted that the party has nothing to do with the matter.

“These rumours and allegations about plots to overthrow the government are nothing but a result of the febrile and fertile imagination of an idle and overactive mind... Let us not go by rumour-mongering,” Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters to a volley of questions at the AICC briefing.

Asked about the charges and counter-charges about the alleged conspiracy against her, Ms Dikshit said: “I have no idea about it. What political conspiracy can take place? All I know is that a businessman was raided and certain things were found on him. The CBI is probing the matter.”

She said she has never met Malhotra, who is said to be close to several Delhi leaders. “Maybe, in large gatherings he may have come to me or I may have said ‘namaskar’ to him,” Ms Dikshit said. Seeking to downplay the differences in the party, Yusuf said, “We are not upset with anyone. The Congress is not divided. All this talk that we are unhappy is baseless.” Lovely said, “Sonia Gandhi is our leader and Sheila Dikshit is our chief minister. The Congress is a disciplined party.”

Dikshit’s son and Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit criticised the BJP for demanding the Chief Minister’s resignation, saying there was no basis for asking her to step down.

“Delhi government has nothing to do with the allocation of the plots. Neither any minister nor the Chief Minister has anything to do with it,” he said and reminded that the scam dated back to the NDA regime as the fraud happened during 2000-2002 when the BJP-led coalition was in power.