NEW DELHI: Even as the Minister without portfolio, Natwar Singh, on Sunday refused to quit the Union Council of Ministers as it would look like an "admission of guilt" over the Volcker controversy, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader A. B. Bardhan said the BJP's demand for UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's resignation was "funny."

But Mr. Singh should quit to puncture the BJP's campaign and allow Parliament to focus on more substantive issues. "There is no substantial evidence against Mr. Singh and the Congress. Mr. Singh has a case but in my opinion, he should resign to stop the BJP from utilising the controversy for political ends and also expose their in-house problems," he said.

Fernandes issue

The former Congress general secretary and a leading ideologue of the party, Devendra Dwivedi, questioned the Vajpayee Government's record on ministerial resignations and pointed out that established conventions to uphold integrity in public life were buried when George Fernandes was re-inducted into the Union Cabinet without being cleared of his alleged misdemeanour. How he managed to "blackmail" his way back into the Cabinet still needs to be probed, he added.

The entire thrust of the BJP's propaganda is to pre-empt and de-legitimise the findings of the Enquiry Committee. He felt Ms. Gandhi and Dr. Singh had acted promptly and taken an unequivocal stand that "whosoever is found guilty or has misused the party's name will be punished."

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