Ministerial resignations: Congress takes moral high ground

New Delhi: Congress today took moral high ground over the resignations of Union ministers PK Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, promising “strict action” if they are at fault in the Railway bribery case and Coalgate controversy.

“Congress takes action. These things are not tolerated in the party under the leadership of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. History is witness to it. What has been proved from yesterday’s action is that we don’t believe in mere words,” party spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das said.

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh, while describing the decision as “appropriate”, took a dig at BJP saying “this has never been the character of the BJP.”

“Whatever decision, the Congress president and the prime minister took is appropriate. If they (Bansal and Kumar) are at fault, strict action will be taken against them. But if they are innocent, we would like CBI to complete the investigations fast so that they can prove their innocence,” Singh said.

Das also took a dig at BJP for wasting precious time of Parliament, saying this happened due to the opposition party’s “carelessness and irresponsibility”.

Welcoming the party’s decision on the resignations, UPA ally NCP rejected BJP’s argument that had the ministers resigned earlier, it could have saved the Parliament session.

“They (BJP) were disrupting the Parliament much before the demand of the resignation of these ministers,” NCP general secretary DP Tripathi said.

“The ministers have resigned on the question of constitutional morality, as decided by the Prime Minister. It is good that they have resigned to set a precedent for good governance and constitutional morality,” he said.

Bansal and Kumar resigned on Friday over the controversy surrounding the allegations of corruption in a railway job scandal and interference with CBI probe in the coal scam.

PTI