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The Centre and the Congress party dismissed the Samajwadi Party's allegation that the CBI was acting under pressure to put Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh in the dock. The SP, they charged, was committing contempt of court by casting aspersions on the Supreme Court order that called for a CBI probe into the disproportionate assets of the CM.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister PR Dasmunsi and Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi advised the SP to exercise restraint.

Singhvi renewed the Congress's demand for Mulayam's resignation on "moral grounds" following the SC order. "Perhaps more than 10 times in the last five years, situations have arisen when on legal, constitutional, political and moral grounds, the CM should have resigned," he said.

He also hit out at the Opposition for criticising the Budget, which he claimed had focused on the social sector in size, scope and magnitude, despite a resource crunch. 

"If these measure are not for aam aadmi then for whom are they?" he asked, recounting the allocations made for education, health, physically challenged people and senior citizens that reflected the government's emphasis on growth with distributive equity.

In this context, the government and the party have not taken kindly to Union Minister Jairam Ramesh's reported remarks asking people who did not like the budget - in an allusion to Left leaders - to consume pet food. "This is not the view of the government," said Dasmunsi, who said that other than the party and government spokespersons remarks, the rest could be attributed to "freelancers". Despite this, there are many in the Congress who have raised eyebrows at the special mention made in the Budget to the duty cut provided for food for pets.

Singhvi used the occasion to dismiss reports that the Congress was attempting to hammer out a majority in the Uttarakhand assembly where no single party has a clear majority. "The Congress believes in the democratic process and the verdict tells us that people don't want the Congress in government. We will not try cheap tactics," he said.

With regard to the Opposition's charge that the government had deliberately kept Quattrocchi's detention in Argentina under the wraps for 17 days, Singhvi sought to turn the tables on the NDA. "These are serious matters. They are concerned with hard facts and if you don't send hard facts to Argentina you will meet the same fate as the NDA did in Malaysia," he said, referring to the dismissal of the appeal against Quattrocchi. He also underlined that the Opposition was in power for eight of the 20 years since the Bofors case first came up yet it did nothing. "In eight out of 20 years you could not do a small jot. It is nothing but to misguide the people," he said. As far the Congress was concerned, the Bofors chargesheet was quashed in February 2004, he said.

Email author: snagi@hindustantimes.com