The Hindu : National : 'Dignity of PM's office compromised'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 26, 2004

National

National

'Dignity of PM's office compromised'

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, MAY 25. The Bharatiya Janata Party today made the point, politely but firmly, that while all new governments, especially coalition governments, have teething troubles, the Manmohan Singh regime which has just taken over the levers of power had ``crossed all limits,'' with its allies openly bargaining for ministerial positions.

The former Law Minister and BJP spokesperson, Arun Jaitley, said the ``new centres of power'' were on public display and the garima (authority and dignity) of the Prime Minister's office had been compromised.

In an apparent reference to the DMK, he said: ``One political party has shown the written document given to it on allocation of portfolios by a Congressman. I wonder if the Prime Minister even knew about this. Is it a case of someone trying to usurp the Prime Minister's prerogative?'' He hoped that the primacy and dignity of the Prime Minister's office would be maintained.

Mr. Jaitley said the formation of a coalition government could take some time, but this time all limits had been crossed with government-formation delayed by almost a week. He questioned the wisdom of inducting ministers with a questionable record. Answering questions, he said that in the BJP-led government the former Ministers (L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti) were charged in cases related to the Ayodhya disputes, which were ``political cases''. However, later he agreed that legally speaking, those were criminal cases.

The former Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said the new Railways Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, had ``six cases relating to the fodder scam scandal pending against him'' as well as a ``disproportionate assets case''. The new Minister of State for Food and Agriculture, Taslimuddin, has five cases listed against him, including charges such as ``attempt to murder''; ``assault on a government servant''; and ``using fire arms and explosives''.

Mr. Prasad said that another Minister of State (in the Water Resources Ministry), Jai Prakash Yadav, had two cases relating to corruption and fraud pending against him, while the former Superintendent of Police for Darbhanga, Shobha Ahotkar, had made allegations against the now appointed Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Mohammed Ali Ashraf Fatmi.

Mr. Jaitley said that all these cases mostly related to the period when the United Front Government was in power at the Centre. He added: ``They [the Congressmen] boycotted [the] former Defence Minister, George Fernandes, they stalled parliamentary proceedings ... I want to ask the Congress party ... first let it answer ... what does it have to say now?''

He made it clear that the BJP did not intend to ``boycott'' these Ministers. ``We will get various opportunities in Parliament to focus on this.''

It was true that the Election Commission had suggested barring all candidates with criminal cases pending against them from contesting elections. It was also true that at an all-party meeting there was no consensus on the Commission's proposal and ``there was no constitutional bar'' against these MPs becoming Ministers. But, Mr. Jaitley insisted that the Congress should respond to his question. Why had it raised the issue of charges against Mr. Advani or Mr. Joshi when they had no qualms about giving ministerial berths to ``tainted men.''

After a high-level BJP meeting this morning, the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, said that reports of an impending change of Chief Minister in Gujarat were ``speculative''. He was responding to a question from the press.

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