CWC talks

At the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting last week, there was an extended discussion on the handling of the activists — Ramdev and Anna Hazare — demanding a stronger, more proactive Lok Pal. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was asked several searching questions (and so, at the meeting with the editors, he explained at length what actually happened — why four ministers went to meet Ramdev, etc — because the CWC had already put him through the wringer). The PM said he took full responsibility for the handling of the issue. Then, Mukul Wasnik flagged the issue of why party leaders were contradicting the party line, at which Sonia Gandhi said Janardan Dwivedi would be the official mouthpiece of the party and others shouldn’t brief. This exchange was slipped to reporters who cover the Congress as a veiled suggestion that in the CWC, the PM had offered to resign, indicating the party and the government were at odds with each other.