UPA’s Black Friday: Ashwani Kumar, Pawan Bansal resign

 

New Delhi, 10 May 2013 (PTI): In a day of high drama, law minister Ashwani Kumar resigned on Friday following the resignation of railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. Ashwani Kumar was under fire from the opposition after the Supreme Court came down heavily on the CBI for allowing the law ministry to vet the draft of CBI probe report on Coalgate.

 

The apex court had questioned the credibility of CBI probe into the coal block allocations scam and has asked for a thorough and qualitative investigation. Expressing strong displeasure at govt’s interference in the Coalgate probe report, the SC said, "the heart of the report was changed on the suggestions of the govt officials."

 

Commenting on law minister Ashwani Kumar’s role, the apex court said that a minister can ask for a report but can’t interfere with the CBI probe.

 

Bansal resigns

Earlier in the evening, a beleaguered railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had resigned from his post. This comes in the wake of a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

 

Earlier, Congress spokespersons have been maintaining that government is "seized" of the matter of continuance of Bansal. Significantly, Bansal skipped a meeting of the Union Cabinet last evening, that added grist to the mill that he could be on his way out.

 

The railway minister’s nephew Vijay Singla has been arrested for allegedly trying to fix the promotion for a member in the railway board.

 

Bansal’s woes mounted when the CBI questioned his private secretary Rahul Bhandari, a 1997-batch IAS officer from Punjab cadre, in connection with the alleged Rs 10 crore bribery scandal. Bansal has denied any wrongdoing by him claiming that he has no business links with Singla.

 

The opposition had been gunning for the ministers calling for their resignations and also the resignation of the Prime Minister, who also had the coal ministry portfolio under him when most of the irregularities in the coal block allocations took place.