Congress axes Pawan and Ashwani

The UPA government finally acted against errant Ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, extracting their resignations. Shortly after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held discussions, first with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and later with her Political Secretary, Ahmed Patel, Mr. Bansal, and then Mr. Kumar, arrived at 7 Race Course Road — in their official cars — to put in their papers, bringing to an end days of mounting embarrassment to the Congress and the government.

The resignations coincided with the election in Bangalore of Siddaramaiah as Congress Legislature Party leader. Indeed, a hint that the government did not wish its victory in the Karnataka polls to be overshadowed by murky tales of indiscretion.

With the departure of Mr. Bansal and Mr. Kumar from the Ministry, there are now eight vacancies, three of them in the Cabinet: in March, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham withdrew from the government and its Cabinet Minister — M.K. Alagiri, who held the Chemicals and Fertilizers portfolio — and five MoSs left. None of those jobs has yet been filled. If Mr. Alagiri’s job is being taken care of by MoS Srikanta Jena, the government cannot afford to leave Law and Railway headless for too long.

Mr. Bansal’s resignation came precisely a week after a report suggesting that his nephew, Vijay Singla, had accepted a bribe from a Railway Board member to facilitate a lateral promotion, hit the headlines. Sources in the Congress said though Mr. Bansal had offered to put in his papers last Saturday, the party leadership asked him to stay on until after the Karnataka elections were over.

Mr. Bansal, apart from issuing a “clarification” stating his innocence and welcoming an investigation, largely stayed out of view. With fresh revelations in the bribery case emerging from telephone records and the expectation that he would be questioned shortly by the CBI, his continuance in office became untenable.

Mr. Kumar, however, quit after more than two weeks of high drama that included noisy scenes in Parliament, with the Opposition demanding his scalp for “vetting” the CBI affidavit in the Coalgate affair before it was submitted in the Supreme Court.

His attempts at a specially convened meeting of party and government spokespersons to mobilise support for himself failed, largely because he is not very popular with his colleagues. The final nail in the coffin was put by the Supreme Court questioning the CBI investigation’s credibility and asking for a thorough and qualitative probe.

            Union Telecom Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal and Union Surface Transport Minister Mr. C. P. Joshi were given additional charge of Law and Railway portfolios respectively.

UPA-II Ministers Quitting Under Cloud:-

Date	Minister	Party	Reasons
Nov 15, 2010	A Raja	DMK	2G scam
Jul 17, 2011	Dayanidhi Maran	DMK	Aircel-Maxis corruption deal
Jun 26, 2012	Virbhadra Singh	INC	Alleged graft in business deals
May 10, 2013	Pawan Bansal	INC	Railgate
	AshwaniKumar	INC	Coalgate