The Congress Core Committee met on Thursday evening to discuss the Bhopal gas leak and to give directions to the Group of Ministers who would be meeting on Friday afternoon to find a way of breaking the impasse created by the court verdict in handing out punishment to the guilty, said highly placed sources.
Despite the attempts made by the opposition to keep the Bhopal tragedy alive, the Congress leadership has made efforts to put a deliberate closure on the issue.
Despite a statement issued by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to hold a meeting of the Group Of Ministers for the Bhopal gas tragedy at the earliest, the GOM headed by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram would meet only on June 18, the date which was originally scheduled for the meeting, as the home minister is learnt to be busy with developments in Manipur.
A senior leader described the atmosphere in the party as similar to a gang war and said the issue appeared to be gathering serious momentum. Another leader said it is interesting that while Rajiv Gandhi is being attacked and accused openly of working under American pressure, the PMO is absolutely quiet, not saying a word though it is expected that the government would have more facts at its disposal and would be able to add to the ongoing debate.
In what is being seen as a focused approach to the problems of Dalits and tribals in various states, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has begun interacting with some select legislators belonging to these categories.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will convene a high level meeting to rework the government's anti-Naxal strategy on May 24, even as Home Minister P Chidambaram has taken on his own party for undermining the ongoing fight against the Maoist onslaught and asked leaders like Digvijay Singh and Arun Jaitley (without naming them) to take a broader overview of the Naxal issue and refrain from weakening the government.
The Congress leadership is caught in a bind over Jairam Ramesh. While his support for a major Chinese telecom firm is being taken seriously by the party leadership, what has complicated the issue is the visit of President Pratibha Patil to China from May 26 on a five-day visit.
With the Centre taking a U-turn on caste-based census and agreeing to include it as a part of the ongoing census exercise, an angry P Chidambaram virtually walked out of the Lok Sabha and did not return even for Vande Mataram recital when the House came to a close after the eventful Budget session.
Even as the Union cabinet spent a considerable amount of time discussing caste-based census and whether the demand for it is justified or feasible, sources say that the government is not in favour of such a move as it is fraught with a number of dangers and -- as some members said -- 'will institutionalise the caste-based polarisation in society'.
With the attacks on the Congress allies increasing, whether it be Sharad Pawar in the IPL goings on or A Raja, the Union telecom minister who is alleged to be the beneficiary in the allocation of 2G spectrum, the government has had to put up a brave face in addition to mobilising its artillery to defend its ministers.
The government on Tuesday defeated the cut motions moved by the Left and the Bharatiya Janata Party rather decisively, with the scoreboard reading 201 for the opposition and 289 in favour of the government.
Even as the government is keeping its fingers crossed hoping there is no untoward incident when the demand for grants are put to guillotine at 6 pm on Tuesday, its managers are not leaving anything to chance -- contacting each Member of Parliament of not only the Congress party, but its allies as well, to ensure their presence in the House.
According to a top Congress minister, the government needs to be on its toes next week when the combined opposition moves cut motions and the finance bill also comes up for passing in the Lok Sabha. The reason is the altered attitude of the Left parties, particularly the Communist Party of India-Marxist towards the Bharatiya Janata Party with the Left now seeing the Congress as its enemy number one.
According to the latest head count by Congress's managers, the United Progressive Alliance has only 271 seats in the Lok Sabha, though the requisite majority in the 545-member House is 273. For the ruling party, the issue is not about saving the government, but about crossing the majority mark to send the decisive signal that the UPA enjoys a clear majority and has the moral right to continue in power, say sources.
Under severe push from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee combine, the Congress core committee decided to show Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor the door on Sunday evening.
Sources say that there are serious reservations over the style of functioning of Lalit Modi who appears to have become "more and more high handed and autocratic" with each passing day and one option being considered is to appoint a full time paid professional IPL commissioner to run the league with Modi being made the chairman with much less powers.
The party leadership has been left red-faced following the ugly war of words between Tharoor and the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi with the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party demanding that the minister be sacked on charges of corruption and that a CBI probe be constituted into the entire IPL goings-on.
Skating on a razor-thin majority in the Lok Sabha, the Congress managers have zeroed in on Ajit Singh and his five Members of Parliament to lend support to the United Progressive Alliance government to give the government a much needed cushion, and also to help the party get a Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh.
The Jawahar Bhavan Trust has been reshuffled.
Former Union ministers Arjun Singh, M L Fotedar and Mohsina Kidwai have retired as trustees.
Ahmed Patel, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, has relinquished the post of secretary to the trust; he remains a trustee.
There is a serious move afoot to reschedule the second half of the budget session of the Parliament with sources disclosing that leader of the Lok Sabha and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee would discuss the rescheduling of dates in the meeting of floor leaders of political parties which he has called on April 5.
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