Thaindian News

New Delhi/Chennai, July 7 (IANS) Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran resigned Thursday following allegations of involvement in the 2G spectrum scam, becoming the second DMK minister after A. Raja to exit the cabinet.

While the governmnent and the Congress party did not comment on the crucial political development, an emboldened opposition described it as “too little too late” and sought resignation of Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who they alleged showed complicity in the scam.

Thursday’s turn of events is likely to impact both the shape of impending cabinet shuffle and delicately poised relations between the Congress and the DMK.

Informed sources told IANS that Maran, 44, submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after a cabinet meeting, ending speculation over his fate in a government eager to cleanse its image after a series of corruption allegations.

Sources said Manmohan Singh received the resignation after a brief meeting with key ministers - Pranab Mukherjee, P. Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and M. Veerappa Moily - as well as Attorney General Goolam E. Vahanvati.

The meeting was called to study the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) 2G status report that was filed with the Supreme Court Wednesday. The agency alleged that Maran forced telecom promoter C. Sivasankaran to sell his Aircel stake to the Malaysia-based Maxis Group, considered close to the Marans.

A CBI official said in New Delhi that the agency will question Maran soon.

Raja quit in November 2010 and is is now lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail for his alleged involvement in financial irregularities in allotting second generation radio wave licences to mobile phone service providers.

Karunanidhi’s daughter and MP Kanimozhi is also in prison for allegedly conspiring with Raja.

In Chennai, Karunanidhi expressed support for Maran, blaming the media for his resignation.

Karunanidhi said: “The world over, more particularly in India, the rule of media exists. If they decide, they can defame anybody’s name and Dayanidhi Maran is not a exception to that.”

However, the Maran resignation found its echo in the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee also.

JPC chairman P.C. Chacko said Maran, when he was communications minister, rejected a key proposal from the ministry of finance that the telecom pricing policy should be decided by a group of ministers.

The Maran saga was just the leverage the opposition, which said Maran misused his official position when he held the telecom portfolio in 2004-07, needed against a government already battling a credibility crisis.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was scathing.

“This indicates there is a lethargic attitude on the part of the prime minister. It is as if he is saying, ‘Look, 7 Race Course Road falls in way to Tihar Jail, so if you are going there, or there is a charge sheet, come and have a cup of coffee with me and then submit your resignation and go to Tihar Jail’,” mocked BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

The AIADMK was equally unimpressed with Maran’s resignation as was the Left.

“This was long pending. He must have resigned long ago or the prime minister must have made him resign long ago,” Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said in Chennai.

The Congress was caught in a cleft stick, admitted several party leaders.

Officially, however, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari lashed out at the opposition.

“I think that those who on a daily basis brought out lectures on morality should really look within,” he said, pointedly referring to Karnataka Chief Minister B.S.Yeddyurappa’s alleged involvement in land scandals.

– Indo-Asian News Service
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