New Delhi:
As two of the government's senior ministers - smeared with scams - bowed out on Friday, their unprecedented exit has also dealt a blow to what is being called the Prime Minister's Punjab club.
Pawan Kumar Bansal and
Ashwani Kumar - both politicians from Punjab - are said to be close to Dr Manmohan Singh and had reportedly managed to hold out so far, owing to the backing from the PM, more so for Mr Kumar. But a nudge from Congress President Sonia Gandhi - with her reported discomfiture with the continuation of the duo in office - and marching orders were issued.
But the PM's reluctance to sack Mr Kumar - the former Coal Minister - was not just because of his proximity to the latter. It was because of the larger shadow of the coal controversy that has also engulfed the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The Supreme Court had recently also reprimanded officials from the PMO, saying "everyone wants to look" at CBI's report and "make changes" - the agency's probe report also dealt with some of the years when the coal portfolio was under the direct charge of the PM.
(Read: Focus could shift to officials from Prime Minister's Office)"I would like to ask Ashwani Kumar whom is he trying to protect by resigning. I believe that if the PM does an honest introspection, then the only option he will find is that of resigning," said Rajnath Singh, the president of the BJP.
But the Congress - by showing the door to the ministers - is trying to blunt the Opposition's attack by displaying a new intolerance to corruption.
(Read)"Guilty who so ever it may be, they are to be punished," Congress spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das told NDTV.
But before the fall from grace, both Mr Bansal and Mr Kumar had been handpicked for the Railways and Law portfolios respectively by Dr Singh himself. Mr Kumar, for one, had found a place in the Union Cabinet within four years of becoming a Rajya Sabha member. He finally took over as Law Minister last October.
Meanwhile, Mr Bansal, a four-time MP, was given charge of the crucial Railways ministry after the Trinamool's exit from the government, thus becoming the first Congressman to hold the portfolio in nearly two decades.
While the Congress has, with the resignations of the two leaders, tried to contain some of the damage, the issue has clearly exposed the divide between the party and the government, leaving the PM more vulnerable.