Aggressive Congress decides to fight fire with fire

The best defence is a good offence. This adage has been put into practice in the sports arena as well as on the military battlefield. Now, the Congress seems to have employed the strategy to counter the Opposition onslaught on the 2G spectrum allocation scam involving telecom minister A. Raja.

Embarking on an aggressive path, the party will highlight — both in and outside Parliament — the alleged land scam involving the Karnataka government and the son of chief minister B. S. Yeddyurappa.

Congress leaders said the BJP had no moral right to call the UPA corrupt and that the party should first explain the multicrore land scam involving the Karnataka BJP leaders. The roles of former telecom ministers — late Pramod Mahajan and Arun Shourie — in the Vajpayee government were also being studied by government managers in their bid to turn the tables on the saffron party.

Government sources said on Saturday that a minister could not be sacked on the basis of a CAG report. Both the party and the government further maintained that till the Supreme Court gave its final verdict in the case, the issue shouldn’t be pre- judged.

Rejecting ADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa’s offer of support to the UPA if it dumped the DMK, a senior leader said: “ You cannot change alliance partners like clothes and lose your political credibility.” The BJP, too, hardened its stance seeking an explanation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on the law officers’ meeting with Raja’s counsel and the former DoT secretary’s statement regarding corruption in the 2G scam. The CPM politburo also issued a statement and demanded the minister’s resignation.

“ There is clear evidence of a meeting between solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam, the CBI officials and Raja’s counsel. This amounts to contempt of the court, especially when the SC is set to hear the matter on Monday,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

But the Congress hit back. Its spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said: “ First the BJP should come clean on the land scam involving Yeddyurappa and his son.” Union minister V. Narayanaswamy said the Opposition's demand for Raja’s scalp was “ untenable”. For his part, the Prime Minister wanted Sonia to take a final call on the matter.