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State of the Government : “Tainted” Ministers issue, Soren axed |
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The Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance Government repeatedly found itself in a state of virtual political jam in Parliament last week on the issue of “tainted” Ministers in his Cabinet. The issue was fully exploited by the Opposition over Coal Minister Shibu Soren against whom an arrest warrant was issued by a court of law in Jharkhand on July 17. With reports that the Minister was absconding to avoid arrest, the matter became too hot forcing the Prime Minister to axe Soren from the Council of Ministers by seeking his resignation which was submitted to Manmohan Singh on February 24 and accepted by President Kalam the same evening.
Soren, leader of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), a partner of the ruling UPA, is allegedly involved in a massacre which took place nearly three decades ago.Though the Wheels of Justice often move very slow, in this case, these appear to have been made to move fast by the BJP which is the ruling party in Jharkhand. The case against JMM leader Shibu Soren appeared to have been dug up and an arrest warrant against him was issued by a court on July 17. To avoid being held by policemen, the Minister slipped out of New Delhi and his whereabouts were not known to the Lok Sabha Speaker or the government. Seizing the opportunity, the BJP launched a vocal assault against the government demanding that the Prime Minister sack Soren. Proceedings in both Houses of Parliament were disrupted for hours. Unable to control the opposition it was decided to adjourn both Houses for a 23-day recess. The next sitting will be on August 16.
Realising that the continuation of Soren in the Union Cabinet had become untenable due to his behaviour, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 23 sought his resignation. The bail application of Soren will come up for hearing before the Jharkhand High Court on July 26.
The BJP welcomed the Prime Minister’s directive to Soren to resign from the Union Council of Ministers, but said it was a “belated” decision. BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra alleged that the Prime Minister delayed the decision to allow Soren time to secure a bail from the High Court. The National Democratic Alliance leaders would meet President A P J Abdul Kalam on Monday (July26) and demand the dismissal of other charge-sheeted ministers, including Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.
Earlier, the issue was raised by BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra in the Lok Sabha last week. Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani had threatened that the National Democratic Alliance would withdraw from all parliamentary committees to protest against the “confrontationist attitude” of the Manmohan Singh Government. He also alleged that the Prime Minister was “not in control” of his Government and “unable to exercise his authority,” citing Dr. Singh’s inability or unwillingness to make a statement on his missing Cabinet colleague, Shibu Soren. Advani said the Opposition had no option but to go to the people and seek their support to compel the Government to govern in accordance with the law of the land.
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said he was extremely unhappy that a person continued to be a Minister when an arrest warrant has been issued against him. He felt that the image of all legislators had been affected by the Soren episode. BJP leader Malhotra’s view was that Parliament should not be sending out a message that the House was protecting criminals or preventing their arrest in connection with criminal cases.
The Government and the Speaker have expressed their anger that the NDA has assumed that it alone would decide when and how Parliament should function.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had pointed out that the case had been “resurrected after nearly 28 years and the motive was political.” Several thousand people were involved in an agitation about 28 years ago. Cases were registered against several hundred persons. “Then about two years ago, when Babulal Marandi (BJP) was the Jharkhand Chief Minister, he announced in the Assembly that all cases relating to that agitation were being withdrawn,” Azad said. But only cases against BJP leaders were ordered to be withdrawn and even in the case of Arjun Munda, the present Jharkhand Chief Minister, technically the case against him has not yet been withdrawn, Azad pointed out.
The Congress had been resisting the opposition demand for the sacking of Soren as it could make the NDA raise more demands. But a high level meeting of Congress leaders chaired by Sonia Gandhi reportedly came to the conclusion that the UPA was paying a heavy price for defending Soren’s action and giving undue advantage to the BJP-led opposition. If the minister had gone along with the cops to appear in the Jharkhand court, the Congress could have argued in his favour of obeying law. But by absconding and remaining out of contact with his own party and the UPA leaders, Soren has dug his own grave, she said.
JMM will continue to be part of UPA
Official as well as Congress sources were confident that the JMM would continue to be a member of the United Progressive Alliance. The JMM leadership, according to Congress sources, was fully aware that the Bharatiya Janata Party raked up the issue apparently motivated by Jharkhand politics.
The Soren chapter is not yet closed with his resignation which was submitted to the Prime Minister on July 24. President A.P.J. Kalam accepted Soren’s resignation in the evening on the advice of the Prime Minister. The case comes up for hearing in the Jharkhand high court on July 26 which is to decide on whether Soren could be given bail. The Congress, according to observers, could have saved a lot of embarrassment for itself if it had immediately called for Soren’s resignation instead of vacillating, throwing Parliament out of gear. Now that the opposition has “tasted blood” on the issue of tainted ministers, it will wait for a chance to target other ministers, mostly from Bihar. Many cases are pending in Bihar courts against Rail minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and if a warrant like the one in Soren case is issued, Laloo will find it difficult to continue in government. The last time such a situation arose in Bihar, he anointed his wife Rabri Devi as Chief Minister, the post in which she continues till now.
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