Two pink slips

Lessons from ministers' delayed resignations

The resignations of two Cabinet ministers, Pawan Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, came within hours of each other late on Friday evening. The position of both in the Union Cabinet had become somewhat untenable, following revelations that the former's family members had promised high posts in the Railway Board to aspirants for money, and the latter had called meetings to examine and alter the status report the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was submitting to the Supreme Court on its coal block investigations. However, there is little doubt that considerable damage was done to the Congress party and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government by allowing both ministers to continue for as long as they did. Mr Bansal argued that there was no allegation of specific wrongdoing traceable to him as yet, but the political fallout for the UPA's leaders of tolerating what appears to be corruption is undeniable. And Mr Kumar, though he was let off relatively lightly by the Supreme Court and not singled out for particular strictures, was nevertheless caught in an attempt to brazen out the changes made to the CBI's status report - and he should have resigned at that point to save his government further embarrassment. One more individual remains who has been tarnished by recent events: Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati, who also should be expected to go.

The government should take the various institutional and political lessons to heart. The fact is that it cannot always rely on a pliant CBI. In addition, belief in its claims about the CBI's functional autonomy is at an all-time low. This leads to distrust in the system of law enforcement overall, and in accountability of the powerful - something the government cannot allow to let fester any longer. A genuine effort to statutorily frame CBI independence, with appropriate checks and balances to keep it from becoming an uncontrollable monster, is necessary. The government must start working on it immediately. It is also important to note that Mr Bansal's policies for the Indian Railways were not off-track. It is necessary to ensure that, in the time remaining to the UPA, they are followed up on as much as possible. Road and Transport Minister C P Joshi has been given the portfolio as an additional charge. That is insufficient. It should be passed on to a full-time minister as soon as possible. The law portfolio, too, cannot be allowed to remain an additional responsibility of a Cabinet minister for long.

Politically, also, the UPA must realise that it can no longer expect to ride out corruption scandals and attempted cover-ups. Public trust is at an all-time low and attempts at evasion will be detected. The Congress party's only hope to not be destroyed in the elections is to somehow manage to create the impression that it is genuinely working to create institutional fixes, and weed out the dishonest and incompetent from its midst.