NEW DELHI, JULY 26: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been sitting on a proposal to go public with ethics in the party's manifesto, a stance which could affect some of her key aides when the tickets are distributed for the coming polls.On July 19 and 20, the party's manifesto committee, headed by Pranab Mukherjee, felt that the party must go public with its stress on ethics in public life and announce in the manifesto that it will go by strict standards in giving out tickets to people for the September elections.This has always been a tricky issue in the Congress, which is still battling the effects of several scams which surfaced during former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao's time. Scandals and doubtful public actions of leaders existed even before Rao's tenure, but the spate of scams which surfaced in the years when he was PM was unprecedented.Since then, an Ethics Committee has been constituted by Sonia, headed by A K Antony, whose sole job is to lay down criteria by which people are to be judged in the Congress, especially its MPs and MLAs - the party's public face. The proposed denial of tickets to people with ``questionable backgrounds'' and criminal cases and chargesheets against them was an issue which took a fair amount of the manifesto committee's time last week.In the end, Mukherjee and others felt the issue was best left to the party president, who is to take a final decision and inform colleagues on the norms by which tickets are to given.And for the last seven days, 10, Janpath hasn't moved on this front. With valid reasons. At least two members of Sonia's immediate circle of friends, both CWC members, have recently been questioned on charges against them ranging from tax fraud to criminal activities. One of them has been named in a police disposition by an accused close to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.Sensing trouble, Sonia managed to find a way out for one of them, who has been accommodated in the Parliament's Upper House. The other CWC member has announced he would not contest this time, making it easy for the party in his case.But there are others who have been complaining to Sonia that they are being targeted, using the Ethics' Committee's recommendations as an alibi. One of Sonia's aides, K Karunakaran, is facing a fresh round of trouble in Kerala over the Palmolein scam when he was Chief Minister. The LDF Government in Kerala has raised the issue in the State Assembly and the controversy has rocked the House over the last four days.Both Karunakaran and Antony have refuted the allegations, but there is some distance still to travel. Likewise, former MP Satish Sharma is in trouble over his decisions when he was Union Petroleum Minister. He has held the Amethi seat for the Rajiv Gandhi family in the past, but could make way for Sonia this time.It isn't only these leaders who are under a cloud. From almost all states, people have been listing charges against rivals to settle scores and deny them tickets. This is one reason Sonia is said to be going slow on the matter: the credibility of the charges itself is in doubt in some cases.However, people are wary of her repeating a ``mistake'' she committed sometime ago. Sonia nominated notorious lottery king M K Subba as the party's observer for Sikkim, an act which hasn't gone down well.If ethics are to reign, the Subbas and the Satish Sharmas of the party may have to be limited to the sidelines.
