Rahul meets PM: What next for 'nonsense' ordinance?

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his official residence of 7 Race Course Road, ostensibly to discuss the fate of the ordinance on criminal MPs, which Rahul slammed as ’nonsense’ in a now infamous media briefing last Friday. [caption id=“attachment_1147087” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] Gandhi was seen driving into the Prime Minister’s drive way at around 9.30 am on Wednesday. Earlier he was conspicuous by his absence at Raj Ghat, where both his mother Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister went to pay their respects to Mahatma Gandhi on the 144th anniversary of his birth. Rahul usually accompanies his mother on such occasions. Rahul’s caustic condemnation of the ordinance has been seen as a snub not only to Singh but also to others in the cabinet such as Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Law minister Kapil Sibal and Information & Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari. Manmohan Singh for his part, arrived back in India from the US in a combative mood last night. He indicated that he was unhappy with the timing of the Congress Vice President’s sudden outburst and hinted that Sonia had also been a part of the original decision. “I am not a master of what people say. It has happened. When I go back I will try to find out the reasons why it had to be done this way and how we will handle it,” the Prime Minister said in comments to reporters soon after his arrival. At 6 pm, the Cabinet will meet to take a final call on withdrawing the ordinance.