Pressure is mounting on the Government to sack Law Minister Ashwini Kumar after the Supreme Court came down heavily on the Central Bureau of Investigation for sharing the coal probe report with the Minister.
The Government and the Congress leadership were left squirming after the apex court termed as “very disturbing” the CBI’s affidavit on sharing its report on the coal scam with the Law Minister, PMO and others. It flayed the probe agency for keeping the court in the dark on the matter. It also asked the CBI to furnish details of the changes made by the Government in the status report on the coal scam, submitted by the agency to the apex court in March.
The Congress was left buying time on Ashwini Kumar’s resignation, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promising action after studying the court’s observations.
Since Parliament is in session, the Prime Minister will have to explain the reasons for a Cabinet Minister’s resignation.
However, the Congress is in a deeper fix as the BJP is demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation as the status report was seen by a senior PMO official.
“Of course, it is not a pleasant comment for any dispensation, for any composition of the Government,” party General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said.
Stepping up pressure on the Centre, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, reiterated her party’s demand that the Prime Minister resign owning moral responsibility.
“Gross interference”
The CPI(M) said the Prime Minister's strong defence of the Law Minister raised serious questions as to who else was aware of the “gross interference” in the process by the executive. “The Prime Minister must come clean before the nation,” the party demanded.
Meanwhile, Assistant Solicitor-General Haren Raval, who earlier appeared for the CBI before the Supreme Court in the coal scam case, resigned after the court’s observations. The Government had disallowed Raval from appearing before the apex court on Tuesday on the coal scam. Raval is said to have told the apex court that the CBI status report on Coalgate was not shared with the Government.