NEW DELHI: Irked over the party leadership’s repeated post-ponement of a pointblank discussion on the corruption issue which has affected the image of the party substantially, a number of a middle level Congress (I) leaders here asserted that they would demand the expulsion of former Union minister Sukh Ram from the party at the meeting of the Congress party in Parliament (CPP). “We will definitely not allow ourselves to be sidetracked from demanding the immediate expulsion of Mr. Sukh Ram from the Congress (I),” an MP from the group spearheading the move for a no holds barred talk on the corruption issue in the party maintained. This, despite attempts by the leadership to limit the discussions at the CPP meet to electoral reforms.
In the event that this is thwarted, the leaders stressed that they were determined to requisition a meeting of the CPP both to demand the expulsion of Mr. Sukh Ram and to discuss the effect of the spate of corruption charges dodging the party leadership. Significantly, the group of five including Mr Tariq Anwar, Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, Mr. Ashok Gehlot, Mr. Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and Mr. Priyaranjan Das Munshi who recently shot off a letter to Mr. Rao demanding that he urgently convene a meeting of the CPP for honing in on corruption, now also has the backing of other party MPs including, Mr. A.G. Jose and Mr. P. Chacko, who originally mooted the demand.
The resolve by the younger MPs to press ahead with their demand notwithstanding consequences comes in the wake of serious worries within the party over its near comatose state both inclement and outside in the math of the spate of corruption charges dogging not only Mr. Rao, but also former communications minister Sukh Ram, Mr. Ramlakhan Singh Yadav, Ms. Sheila Kaul, Mr. P.K. Thungon and several others. Speaking on behalf of the younger MPs, Mr. Tariq Anwar, who had demanded that Mr. Rao step down as party president, stressed, “We will raise the corruption issue since it is the most important issue today.”
Mr. Anwar said the general feeling in the party was rat the suspension of the former communications minister Mr. Sukh Ram, who has been charged with a multi crore scam by the CBI, was simply not sufficient. Directly flaying the postponing tactics adopted by the party leadership in response to the demands, Mr. Anwar stressed. “We need a party forum where we can collectively decide how we should deal with corruption.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 4, 1996
