"The onus is now on Prime Minister Narendra Modi", Congress asserted today attacking him over the "continuance of 14 ministers with cases against them" in NDA government as the Supreme Court sent a strong message against induction of ministers facing criminal and corruption charges.
Party spokesperson Rajeev Gowda, however, faced tough questions at the AICC briefing about continuance of ministers facing criminal cases in some Congress-ruled states like Karnataka.
"We will make sure that Chief Ministers of party pay attention to the observations of the Supreme Court...Our Chief Ministers are totally aware of who is involved or not...
"Anyone, anywere--that is the implication of the observation...This is an observation for every government, the Prime Minister and every Chief Minister. We would expect everybody to respond to it," Gowda told reporters.
He was responding to a volley of questions including whether the Congress leadership will direct its Chief Ministers to ensure that ministers facing such cases in their states are dropped.
Gowda said that Congress concurs with the observations of the apex court.
"These observatioins put the onus on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain to the nation why he continues to maintain 14 ministers accused in various cases in his ministry line Nitin Gadkari, Uma Bharti, Nihal Chand and Upendra Kushwaha," Gowda said.
He said that the track record of the BJP leader, when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, "does not inspire" because "he continued to have Babu Bokhiria and Purshottam Solanki as ministers in Gujarat despite cases against them".
