Law minister cornered over remark on Sonia's rights

BJP has govt firmly in its cross-hairs

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today tried to corner Law Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj over his reported remarks that Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chief Sonia Gandhi could have access to government files since as the CPP leader she held the rank of a Cabinet minister.

Criticising the minister, BJP spokesperson VK Malhotra said it would violate several basic rules laid down by the Constitution. It would not only violate the oath of secrecy administered to ministers (which Sonia Gandhi had not taken), but was also against transaction of business rules, he said.

"This proves what we have been saying all along that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a government with alternative power centres and that Sonia Gandhi may have renounced prime ministership but she is still pulling the strings of government," he said.

Terming the controversy baseless, Ashwini Kumar (Congress) said Sonia Gandhi had no intention of asking for any confidential file of the government. "She has never done so, and will not do that now. No Congress leader will do anything to subvert the Constitution," he said.

In the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley (BJP) was scheduled to speak on the issue, but he could not do so because of the din raised by the NDA members over the inclusion of tainted ministers' in the government.

However, Bhardwaj chose to maintain a stoic silence. He is believed to have denied making the statement to his party leaders and kept away from the media all of today.

Meanwhile, the Congress today said Bhardwaj had been "misquoted" as he was talking about the status reports about the implementation of the common minimum programmes of the coalition. "I spoke to the law minister. He said there is difference between what he said and what has been reported," Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said.

What he said in response to a question was that Gandhi as the chairperson of the UPA government's CMP implementation committee enjoying the rank of a Cabinet minister could call for status reports from ministries concerned on the progress of the implementation of the programme, he said.

"She has the right to call for status report from various ministries on the progress of the implementation of the CMP adopted by the UPA government,' he added.