NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao indirectly came under attack at the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) meeting here last week. The meeting had specially been called to discuss the issue of corruption and even the loyalists found it difficult to defend the leadership, for failure to set its own house in or der. The group of five MPs which forced the leadership to hold a meeting of the CPP on corruption, created a flutter when one of them moved are solution to the effect that those charge sheeted for corruption should not hold any post either in the government or in the party. The rebels were obviously referring to Rao and R.K. Dhawan, who continue to hold party posts, although their names figure in various cases of corruption and cheating.
Although Rao had been given a copy of the resolution by the West Bengal MP, P.R. Das Munshi, who started reading it in the presence of 160 party MBs, the loyalists didn’t know what to do to prevent him from doing so. Before they could realize what was happening, Girja Vyas and A. C. Jose had seconded the motion. The controversy, whether the resolution be treated as passed or not, was likely to continue, Whereas Suresh Kalmadi, an official spokesman of the CPP, denied that any resolution was even moved, rebels claimed that it was passed unanimously.
But the fact is that none of the eight Rao loyalists, who spoke at the meeting, disapproved of the suggestion. Manmohan Singh, a former Union finance minister, even embarrassed the leadership by saying, “Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion.” He said that the Sukh Ram episode had tarnished the image of the party and added that the time had come for all of them to set standards.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1996
