Government looks for 'honourable exit' for Ashwani Kumar, Pawan Bansal

New Delhi: Many leaders in the ruling Congress are distancing themselves from the decision to back Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Railway Minister Pawan Bansal, both tainted by scandal, signalling a divide between the party and the government it leads.

The government has refused to give in to the opposition's demand that the two ministers be sacked and is loath to be to be seen as acting under pressure. It is reportedly considering an "honourable exit" for them. One option is a cabinet reshuffle to smoothly drop them without much ado.

The BJP-led opposition has stalled Parliament every day and told the UPA government that it will allow it to push important legislation like the food security bill, which was tabled yesterday, only when the two ministers resign.   

The Congress is hamstrung. There are three working days of the Budget session left and it desperately needs to push the Food Security Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill, both key Congress promises and priority for party president Sonia Gandhi and her son and number 2, Rahul Gandhi.

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These are also seen as crucial populist measures for the ruling coalition, which has hurtled from one corruption scandal to another, just months before the national election in which it will ask voters for a third consecutive term.

A senior Congress leader emphatically said that the decision to allow the two ministers to continue was taken by the government and the Prime Minister, not by the party.

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Mr Kumar is accused of deleting portions from a draft of the CBI's report to the Supreme Court on its investigation into coal block allocations. Two days after he allegedly vetted the draft, the CBI submitted its report to the court in sealed cover implying confidentiality. The Supreme Court has called it an "erosion of faith."

Mr Bansal finds himself in a spot after his nephew was allegedly caught accepting a bribe from a man looking for a plum position on a railway board.