Congress retreats as NDA presses home advantage

Faced with the first major crisis since its return to power last year, the grand old party of India chose to retreat into a shell, believing that the controversy over the Volcker report will peter out soon.

Even as Opposition parties today stepped up the offensive over the Volcker committee report""this time targeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi""the ruling party headquarters at 24, Akbar Road, wore a deserted look till the evening.

After drawing first blood with External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh being divested of his portfolio, the Opposition alliance raised its bar of demands. NDA Convenor George Fernandes said Singh should not be made a "scapegoat" and demanded that Gandhi should clarify her position as the Congress had "equal status in the Volcker report".

At a press conference here, Fernandes said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should set matters right "in accordance with principles" or else resign with his "before the people bring the government down".

BJP leader Arun Jaitley, too, took potshots at Gandhi saying that the developments in the past 10 days had put a question mark on her authority as her views were overruled both on the change of guard in Jammu and Kashmir as well as on the Natwar Singh affair.

According to Jaitley, prime ministerial authority had also been "eroded" after Manmohan Singh failed to remove Natwar Singh from the Cabinet. The external affairs minister had to be "appeased" because the Congress was afraid that "he knows too much", the BJP leader said.

He accused the government of a "cover up" saying that a committee without legal powers or sanction would have no right to procure evidence outside the country.

While the Opposition upped the ante over the Volcker report, Congress leaders were ducking for cover. Instead of launching a counter-offensive, the party is trying to take a high moral ground, questioning the BJP's right to demand anything given its handling of the Tehelka expose.