All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Jayalalithaa on Monday said the claim of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he had no role in selecting a particular Cabinet Minister would virtually amount to admission of total disregard for the Constitution.
Recalling the Prime Minister's argument that A. Raja was the choice of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Ms. Jayalalithaa, in a statement, said the Constitution had vested in the Prime Minister the power to choose his Council of Ministers.
“It is perfectly all right for him to consult with his party chief and even with his alliance partners on specifics. But to admit in a media briefing that he had no role in selecting a particular Cabinet Minister virtually amounts to admission of total disregard for the Constitution.” As regards the Prime Minister's argument that he did not feel that he was in a position to insist on auctions, after Mr. Raja had assured him absolute transparency in allocation of 2 G spectrum, Ms Jayalalithaa said that as an economist of repute, Dr. Singh should have stepped in and stemmed the rot.
“But, in the interests of a nebulous factor called ‘coalition dharma' he remained silent. This is the sad reality confronting India today. We have a Prime Minister, who not only has no control over his Council of Ministers, but also cannot step in even when he sees things going out of hand,” she said.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said the Prime Minister had no satisfactory answers to queries relating to ISRO's allocation of S-Band spectrum, the Commonwealth Games and the Adarsh Housing Society scams, none of which involved the tenuous issue of ‘coalition dharma'.
