The Congress on Wednesday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi dismiss 14 members from his Cabinet after the Supreme Court observed that “tainted” leaders should not be inducted in the Council of Ministers.
It was a field day for the Congress: first, the Supreme Court advised the government to dump “tainted” Ministers, and then an intra-party kerfuffle in the BJP over Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s threat to quit if charges of misconduct against his son came out in the open, forcing both the Prime Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah to publicly deny them.
While Congress spokesperson Rajeev Gowda named the Ministers who fell into the category that the apex court said should be “dumped”, the party’s communication chief, Ajay Maken, took potshots at the government on the Rajnath Singh issue.
“The strange thing is that as an Opposition party, the Congress hasn’t levelled any allegations against Rajnath Singh’s son. We’d like to know who levelled these allegations against his son and what are these allegations?” Mr. Maken asked.
Later, Mr. Gowda told journalists that Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had four cases against him, including a charge of criminal intimidation; Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti was facing charges of promoting enmity between communities, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Nihal Chand Meghwal was accused in a rape case in Rajasthan and Minister of State for Rural Development Upendra Kushwaha and Minister of State for Consumer Affairs Rao Saheb Danve Patil have four cases each against them.
Mr. Gowda, however, faced several embarrassing questions on why Ministers facing criminal cases continued to remain in office in some Congress-ruled States such as Karnataka.
“We will make sure that Chief Ministers of the party pay attention to the observations of the Supreme Court,” he said, adding, “Our Chief Ministers are totally aware of who is involved or not. This is an observation for every government, the Prime Minister and every Chief Minister. We would expect everybody to respond to it.”
Mr. Gowda also said that Mr. Modi’s track record as Chief Minister of Gujarat “does not inspire” as “he continued to have Babu Bokharia and Purshottam Solanki as Ministers in his Cabinet despite cases against them.”