'Save Dharmana' irks Congress HC
Hyderabad: The message is loud and clear. 'Save us or leave us'. This is what some of the senior ministers troubled by the CBI probe have in a way sounded to the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy when they hurriedly rushed to his camp office on Tuesday morning with a SOS seeking his attention.
The intensified campaign by almost half the cabinet for bailing out the senior Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao was reportedly prompted by the negative signals received from the high command.
The party leadership is in no mood to adopt different yard sticks for different people. It is likely to spell out its stand to this effect without any further delay, party sources indicate.
The Chief Minister would naturally have no second option but to oblige. A majority of the cabinet colleagues of Kiran are hurt and angry with the 'kind of treatment' being meted out to Dharmana.
He is one minister who has taken a very harsh stand against the YSR Congress Party despite the fact that he had hitherto shared strong bonds with the YSR family.
Proving his commitment to the party, he has been locked in a no holds barred fight with his own brother in by-election to Narsannapet constituency. He is one of the senior ministers who could command greater respect and support in the party and government, despite the charges of corruption, party circles point out.
Meanwhile, legal experts opine that the impression of 'inscrutability of the collective decision of the cabinet' under Article 163, being advocated by some of the ministers, especially the Minister for Tourism Vatti Vasanta Kumar, would hardly stand scrutiny of the courts.
The probe agency has nowhere questioned the policy matters as such or the cabinet decisions. What is being looked into is whether administrative procedures have been adhered to in taking decisions and if they violate any related Acts.
Dharmana episode is expected to help evolve guiding principles to be adopted uniformly in handling other such issues involving senior ministers who have received Supreme Court notices.
News Posted: 22 August, 2012
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