Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) With crisis brewing over demand for a separate Telangana, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) Monday held a crucial meeting even as parliamentarians and legislators, including from the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh, quit their posts.

The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was held at his 7, Race Course Road residence, government sources said.

The confabulation of the senior government functionaries comes shortly after 10 Congress members of parliament and 40 Congress legislators, including 11 ministers, 33 TDP and two Praja Rajyam Party legislators from the Telangana region resigned to bring pressure on the central government to announce statehood for the region.

The problems were compounded for the UPA government at the centre with the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), which is spearheading the movement for a separate state, calling for a two-day shutdown in the region beginning Tuesday.

Besides, the UPA government also faced censure from the apex court for dragging its feet over recovering black money stashed abroad. The court ordered a new high-level team to study the issue of black money parked in tax havens abroad.

Another controversy on Monday was raised by media reports that External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna overstayed in a luxurious hotel in London to watch the Wimbledon matches. However, Krishna clarified that he had paid for the expenses.

“Controversies appear to be haunting the government. While they were trying to defuse the Lokpal bill issue, the black money issue and other controversies have come up,” said political analyst Balji Sharma.

According to him, the coming monsoon session of parliament will be stormy with the “opposition having so many sticks to beat the government with”.

Though the resignation of nine Lok Sabha members will not bring the government to minority, it will reduce the confidence of the UPA managers, political managers feel.

One Rajya Sabha member from Telangana also resigned.

“The government will have to frequently depend on the outside supporters like the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal,” said a political observer.

On a day of fast-paced developments, seven MPs of the Congress party from Telengana submitted their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar while Rajya Sabha member K. Keshava Rao gave his resignation to house Chairman Hamid Ansari. Two members faxed their quit letters.

On the issue of black money, a committee headed by former Supreme Court judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy was ordered to be set up by an apex court bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar.

The apex court also directed the central government to disclose the names of people holding accounts in LGT Bank in Liechtenstein — a principality in Europe bordering Switzerland and Austria — as disclosed to it by German authorities.

The court upgraded and converted the existing high-level committee, constituted by the central government, into the special investigation team (SIT).

In its lengthy order, the apex court repeatedly pulled up the central government for dragging its feet and delaying the investigation into the black money stashed abroad.