Published: Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 2:21 IST
By Harish Gupta | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_jairam-adds-chapter-to-congress-s-sorry-season_1381657
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh is the fifth Congress leader in recent memory to face the wrath of the high command and the third minister to get a dressing down from the prime minister (PM).
The first was food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahay, who took on home minister P Chidambaram for his anti-Maoist policy in the wake of the Dantewada massacre of 76 CRPF jawans.
An enraged Chidambaram protested to the PM and Sahay got a warning the next moment. When other ministers tried to join the issue, a gag order was issued by the cabinet secretary, KM Chandrashekhar.
But no lessons were learnt. The next in the line of fire was minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor. He had to quit the government over a row involving his friend Sunanda Pushkar and her sweat equity in the IPL Kochi franchise. This was first reported by DNA.
But the Congress’s season of apologies did not end. It was the turn of another 10 Janpath loyalist to eat humble pie. AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh burnt his fingers by criticising Chidambaram for his “anti-people policies”. Sonia Gandhi refused to meet him.
He was told to apologise to Chidambaram and withdraw the remark. He did so, but it took 10 days to put the lid on the controversy, which brought to the fore sharp differences within the party and the government.
As if this was not enough, another Congress leader, Mani Shankar Aiyar, had to bite the dust. In a Rajya Sabha debate, he called leader of opposition Arun Jaitley “fascist”. Parliament was paralysed and Aiyar was forced to read a written apology in the House.
If one assumed this would be the last episode of an apology by a ruling party member, Jairam Ramesh proved it wrong once again. Though this was not the first time he got into a soup for shooting his mouth off. The previous occasions include the PM overruling him for stopping work on the Maheshwar dam.
But what the Beijing episode has highlighted is that Manmohan Singh has to walk the extra mile to discipline his young team, which often catches itself on the wrong foot in its eagerness to make a mark.
