Red faces at Cong meet as MP wants discussion

NEW DELHI, MAY 17: Even as the Congress party grappled with the confusion and embarrassment caused by the recent statements of senior lead...

NEW DELHI, MAY 17: Even as the Congress party grappled with the confusion and embarrassment caused by the recent statements of senior leaders, Manmohan Singh and Vasant Sathe, Balbir Singh, a senior MP from Punjab, caused a flutter at today8217;s Congress Parliamentary Party CPP meeting, chaired by party chief Sonia Gandhi, by insisting on 8220;raising urgent issues concerning the party8217;s affairs8221;.

Balbir Singh sent senior leaders into a tizzy when he unexpectedly asked Sonia permission to speak on urgent issues facing the party. According to the convention in the Congress, only the CPP leader does the talking at its meetings and assembled MPs are not expected to raise or debate issues.

Apparently, the party chief signalled that he wait till after her address but senior leaders, apprehending that Singh might do some plain-talking like Jairam Ramesh and Vasant Sathe quickly got into the damage-control mode. It took some persuasion from the party deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Madhavrao Scindia 8212; who reportedly sent him a handwritten note dissuading him from breaking convention 8212; to convince Singh to call off his request. Sonia8217;s aide Ambika Soni and several MPs from Punjab also reportedly intervened to 8220;pacify8221; Singh.

Soon after the CPP meet ended, Singh, a former minister, was reportedly summoned by Sonia for a private meeting at which he is believed to have drawn the former8217;s attention to how elected representatives were being ignored by the party high command and leaders with no mass base were being given importance.

However, while Singh did not get a chance to speak at the CPP, his party colleague and former Union Minister Santosh Mohan Deb is reported to have pointed out how statements of partymen like Jairam Ramesh and Vasant Sathe were spreading confusion in the party and damaging its image.

In her address, Sonia once again chided her party MPs for not attending Parliament regularly and urged them to show a keener interest in house proceedings. Quite ironically, a fair number of her MPs were missing from the CPP meet.

She also touched upon various issues, including the party8217;s inability to revoke the subsidy cuts and hike in prices of essential items. 8220;We must use the inter-session period to fan out among the people and press home our solidarity with the weaker sections of society,8221; she said, in an veiled admission of the party8217;s failure to come down heavily on the Government on these issues.

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To counter the confusion created by former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s defence of subsidy cuts in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, today fielded senior leader and former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee instead of Singh himself to explain the party8217;s stand.

While Mukherjee sought to dispel the view that the party supported subsidy cuts as made out by Singh, he pointed out that a detailed discussion should take place on the subsidy issue, keeping in mind parameters such as the level of subsidy, its nature, the groups to be targeted and the delivery mechanism to carry it through.

He said that while the party supported the withdrawal of non-merit subsidies after a detailed discussion on them, subsidies on kerosene, LPG and essential items were sacrosanct. Mukherjee, however, chose to gloss over Vasant Sathe8217;s remarks on Sonia, saying that they 8220;should be taken more in the spirit than in the letter8221;.