New Delhi, Sept 25: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has declined to grant Home Miniser P Chidambaram an audience, reports Mail Today.
Chidambaram on Saturday found himself left high and dry with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi declining to grant him an audience, the report said.
Party circles interpreted Sonia's disinclination to meet Chidambaram before discussing the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee as his growing isolation in the faction- ridden Congress.The PM and the finance minister will return from the US on Tuesday.
Sources said Sonia, who has taken a dim view of the latest twist in the 2G row, would discuss the ramification of the controversy with the Big- 3 and then formulate a strategy to counter the Opposition attack.
The rebuff appeared to be a sudden reversal of fortunes for Chidambaram as only two days ago the PM and the Congress had gone all out to shield him from the Opposition's onslaught, giving the impression of unity within.
The present crisis is a fallout of the finance ministry's memorandum to the PMO sent early this year, which said that as the then finance minister Chidambaram could have prevented the controversial 2G spectrum allocation.
The memorandum was accessed through an RTI application and filed before the Supreme Court. Pranab Mukherjee didn't help matters when he confirmed in Washington that the finance ministry did send the memo to the PMO.
Soon after the finance ministry's memo dated March 25, 2011, which was vetted by Pranab Mukherjee, suggesting that Chidambaram and former telecom minister A. Raja had jointly determined the price for 2G spectrum hit headlines on Wednesday, the home minister spoke to the Prime Minister New York over phone and offered to quit.
Singh, however, reposed full faith in Chidambaram and told him to wait till his return.A section of the Congress leadership believes that Chidambaram is likely to resign when the PM returns to the Capital.They feel that the finance ministry's note was a direct attack on the then finance minister Chidambaram for his role in the spectrum scam.
A Congress politician, who is closely following the 2G spectrum issue, said Chidambaram should take responsibility of the content of the controversial note. “ This is the only note which implicates someone. All the other notes had some points that could be defended. Someone at the top, either the PM, who asked for the note, the finance minister, who sent the note or the home minister who has been implicated in the note should take responsibility,” the Congress leader said.
A party source said the question of the home minister's resignation would arise only if the Supreme Court directed the CBI to probe his role in the scam. However, he could step down on moral grounds.Officially, the party defended all three — the PM, Pranab and Chidambaram and insisted that the matter is sub judice. Besides, the JPC too investigating the scam.
Strongly backing Chidambram, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh said the RSS had made the home minister a target for speeding investigations in the terror cases involving people from the Sangh Pariwar.
There was concern in party circles that with senior BJP leader L. K. Advani launching his anti- corruption rath yatra next month, the BJP would utilise the fresh controversy to intensify its campaign against the UPA government.Both the party and the government continued to face intense Opposition fire.
The Opposition persisted with its demand for the scalp of the home minister for the second day on Saturday.The BJP and the CPM meanwhile upped the ante suggesting that the PM himself is answerable.
fresh controversy buffeted the government after the publication of a letter written by the former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran to the PM seeking dilution of the policy.
While none in the party doubts Chidambaram's personal integrity, many of his colleagues both in the government and the Congress have ego hassles with the lawyer- economist.
Chidambaram's position was weakened by a belligerent BJP that launched its sharpest ever attack on the government on Saturday. The saffron party fielded its senior leader Yashwant Sinha to announce that the home minister belongs in “ Tihar jail in the same cell as A. Raja” while the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too is “ complicit” in the scam.
Armed with the finance ministry's March, 2011 office memo, the BJP were certain that they had come within striking distance of felling the mighty Congress minister. Sinha left no doubts on that score.
