Letters: Ministers forever

Getting rid of party whip and the anti-defection law has nothing to do with the point raised in your editorial “The Jalan solution” (June 10), that it’s only the ministers from the Congress party, and not the non-Congress ones, who are resigning from the UPA government. Shivraj Patil and Shashi Tharoor didn’t resign of their own accord, but were made to resign by the Congress party which was highly embarrassed by political and public outcry against the government regarding internal security failures and IPL link, respectively. Resignation offers by other Congress party ministers like Jairam Ramesh and P Chidambaram were just made for taking a high moral ground, and they knew very well that their resignations were going to be turned down by the prime minister.

The ministers belonging to the coalition parties would never offer resignations on their own. The prime minister can neither ask for their resignation nor sack them, howsoever embarrassing they may have become for the government. That is why Communications Minister A Raja, who belongs to the DMK, is untouched in spite of serious allegations of corruption in the 2G spectrum allotment against him. As long as he enjoys favour of his party chief, he stays. Sharad Pawar, severely criticised for neglecting his primary duties as the agriculture minister and later for his involvement in the IPL controversy, is himself the party chief. Nothing could stop these ministers from resigning if they wanted to do so. The fact is that no matter which party s/he belongs to, after becoming a minister, nobody quits the job unless compelled to.

M C Joshi, Lucknow

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