I would have resigned than face humiliation: Badal

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Wednesday said he would have preferred to resign rather than face humiliation like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the ordinance to protect convicted political leaders.

Badal, while interacting with mediapersons during a function in Jalandhar, 150 km from here, said: "If I was faced with a situation in which any of my party office bearer had belittled me on a decision taken by the whole cabinet, I would have preferred to step down rather than face embarrassment."

Badal said that by using derogatory language against the ordinance, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi expressed no confidence in the prime minister and the cabinet.

"It is a blatant insult of the prime minister's office, which is very unfortunate. It is imperative for the cabinet to submit its resignation. The cabinet's authority has been eroded," Badal said.

The union cabinet WEdnesday evening withdrew the ordinance.

While terming Rahul's actions as "cheap tactics", Badal said: "Even a fool could understand that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were privy to the passage of the ordinance in the cabinet twice and now they could not feign their ignorance. This step has given a severe blow to both the cabinet and the prime minister."

Rahul, last week, described the central government's ordinance as "nonsense" and "absolutely wrong" and added "it needs to be thrown out".

The ordinance was brought by the government following a recent judgment of the Supreme Court which said that convicted leaders would be disqualified from their legislative seats.