The country will breathe a sigh of relief that the Congress Party finally took the decision to get railway minister Pawan Bansal and Union law minister Ashwani Kumar to resign on Friday night. The tension in the political system was approaching breaking point with their continuance. After this move by the ruling dispensation, it is to be hoped that the Opposition, primarily the BJP which must bear the basic responsibility for jamming the legislative process, will no longer seek to hold the system to ransom in the next session of Parliament. Any discontent must be addressed by agreeing to debates, not running away from deliberation and discussion.
Mr Bansal was not an accused. He also enjoyed a reputation for having led a clean public life. But CBI investigations were pointing to his nephew doing downright corrupt deals from the minister’s household. This was intolerable, especially in a public servant. Even if the former railway minister was personally not culpable, his case is an object lesson, especially for those holding high office, that they must at all times be perceived to be clean. An important part of this is to keep close relations or friends away from their official work, especially if such persons are linked to the field of business.
The law minister’s case is somewhat different. He was adjudged adversely in observations of the Supreme Court for having committed an impropriety by making changes in the CBI’s status report in the Coalgate affair. But the apex court is yet to settle the constitutional question of whether the law minister of the country is out of line when he supervises a presentation of the government to the judicial system. Besides, while the oral observations of the court were harsh and noted that the minister’s intervention had altered the “heart” of the CBI’s investigation, the court’s written orders appeared to endorse the CBI’s submission before it that the central theme and focus of the investigation remained unaltered. These discrepancies do need judicial addressing. But Mr Kumar’s intervention had caused an uproar. The Congress has done well to take this on board. The step also serves to underline the party’s confidence that the law minister’s departure will in no way affect the Prime Minister adversely, as some thought.
News reports suggest Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was uncomfortable with the episodes involving the two ministers and is said to have been the prime mover in securing their resignation. This goes to her credit. More, when the country is already in the pre-election season and the UPA-2 government is battling perceptions of corruption, Mrs Gandhi’s move is also astute politics. But the toll of two ministers in a day is unprecedented, and extraordinary.