Mr Prime Minister, Resign please!

Mr Prime Minister, Resign please!

Palash Biswas

The parliament is adjourned sine dies as you dared not to face the questions burning and you did avoid to answer the nation. You are the prime accused in coalgate scam. CBI case is secondary. If the involvement of the law minister is enough for his resignation, on what moral and legal ground you continue in the office as PMO is also involved directly in all cases of CBI misuse?If railgate is enough for the untimely departure of the railway minister, why not to impeach the President just because most of the scam cases may not be tried and investigated due to constitutional immunity of the President. VVIP copter to Sharad scam, everywhere the President is named.The departure of Railway and Law ministers is not quite enough to clear the dirt in the  all round corruption inflicted system which you still head as the leader of the nation. The nation is ashamed that we have got shameless people to lead uswho stand stripped naked in the streets!Just face the nation and seek mandate afresh. If the parliament may be adjourned, it also may be dissolved!

We do not favour the extreme Hindutva forces. But it should not be an excuse to spare the minority corporate government of India which kills the constitution so often, by passes the parliament and does everything to crush the people of India. Let it go!

Under fire Union ministers Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Kumar Bansal resigned from their posts on Friday evening.

Under scanner in the wake of the arrest of his nephew on bribery charges, Pawan Kumar Bansal resigned as Union Rail Minister; while Law minister Ashwani Kumar, who was under attack over vetting of CBI report on coal block allocation also submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister.

Bansal reportedly offered his resignation after meeting Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at his 7, Race Course Road residence. And Kumar followed suit.

Confirming the development Bansal said, "I have resigned."

The 64-year-old Bansal is believed to have been given the marching orders shortly after Congress President Sonia Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh amid growing unease in the party over the controversy surrounding the Railway Minister.

Already battered by a series of scams, the party and the government suffered a severe blow when Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla was arrested last week for allegedly accepting Rs.90 lakh as bribe for helping in the promotion of a Railway Board Member Mahesh Kumar.

Ashwani Kumar,in his resignation letter, said it was "to put an end to the controversy of public perception of wrong doing,".

He may be moved to a less significant ministry, said sources.

The resignations have been forwarded to President Pranab Mukherjee for his approval.

Meanwhile, there were unconfirmed reports from Bangalore that Union Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, who lost out in race for Chief Ministership in Karnataka, told his supporters not to be disheartened because he may be given the Railway portfolio.

Initially the Congress party decided to weather the storm over Bansal but as more and more damning reports surfaced, it had to take a call on asking him to quit.  

Media reports that a number of kin of Bansal had benefited from a public sector bank by way of loans when he was Minister of State of Finance earlier further embarrassed the party and the government.

A clear hint about action against Bansal came when Congress spokesman Bhakt Charan Das said the party will not spare anybody "mired" in corruption or manipulation.

Bansal's exit is expected to trigger a reshuffle in the Council of Ministers over which the Congress President and the Prime Minister will meet on Sunday.

The reshuffle, expected next week, was also speculated to affect Law Minister Ashwani Kumar's clout in the Cabinet.

Meanwhile,the BJP-led opposition has stepped up its pressure on the UPA government by demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh even after he sacked Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar over corruption charges.

Reports, Saturday, claimed that the opposition parties are in no mood to spare the government and say "consequences should follow', while demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation.

"Now, there is no logic in the Prime Minister's continuance. Having decided to drop the Law Minister who was protecting the Prime Minister, then the consequences should follow. The consequence is that the Prime Minister must resign now," BJP leader LK Advani said late Friday.

Describing the resignation of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar as a step taken "too late", BJP charged the government with "wasting" precious time of Parliament by not agreeing to its demand earlier and allowing it to function.

The opposition party hoped that the probe into the railway bribery scam will now move into the right direction and truth will come out if CBI probes the matter 0freely.

"This is a step taken too late. Had the Prime Minister and Congress agreed to BJP's demand earlier, they could have saved the precious time of Parliament," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain was also quoted as saying by the national media.

"The resignation of the two Ministers shows that our demand for their resignation was justified and the government was unnecessarily adamant. If they had accepted our demand for their resignations earlier, the Parliament session could have gone on on," Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter.

The opposition intensified its attack on the UPA government hours after Congress chief Sonia Gandhi reportedly met the Prime Minister and asked him to act against his ministers charged with corruption and interference.

After the fast-paced developments, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal were both forced to quit late on Friday.

The twin resignations have triggered the possibility of a Cabinet reshuffle as early as next week, with Mallikarjun Kharge likely to get the Railway Ministry.

The allegations of corruption against Bansal and the alleged interference by the Law Minister in the CBI's functioning have badly hit the credibility of the UPA government at the Centre.

The Congress, though it took some time in the sacking the two ministers, hoped that the exit of the Bansal and Ashwani Kumar will restore the credibility of the ruling coalition government and would probably end the deadlock in Parliament.

However, the opposition seems to be in no mood to give any concessions to the Congress and is likely to step up pressure on the UPA government in the days to come.

Worried about protecting the Prime Minister, the Congress has put up a brave face defending Dr Manmohan Singh, who, the parry says, is a man of impeccable integrity.

Other big questions which worry the Congress leadership are – will Attorney General and PMO officials who attended the meeting with him where CBI status report was changed will also be sacked after the Law Minister's exit?

And can the Prime Minister still insulate himself from the Opposition, which alleges that he knew everything about what his ministers were doing?

It now remains to be seen whether the resignations will stop the Opposition attacks on the Prime Minister or will it further strength their demand for his resignation.