Why did the AICC session skip any mention of the two controversies that have engulfed the Congress in recent weeks — the Commonwealth Games mess and the Adarsh Housing Society fraud? Party leaders had a range of explanations for this omission.
Asked why the party had skirted mention at least about the need for probity in public life, a top party functionary referred journalists to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's closing lines where she expressed the hope that her party colleagues would exhibit “patience, simplicity and dedication” in all that they undertook.
Party general secretary Digvijay Singh stressed that the party leadership had acted on the promise to set up an enquiry on the CWG immediately after the Games, while three simultaneous investigations were on in the Mumbai scam. Besides, he hinted, if necessary the three-day plenary session, now slated for December 18,19, 20 in Delhi, could take the issue on board. Finally, party spokesman Manish Tewari pointed out that Ms. Gandhi had already “underscored her zero tolerance to corruption” before the recent monsoon session of Parliament, in her address to the Congress Parliamentary Party.
