JOIN USUnion Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday dismissed the BJP’s demand that his ministerial colleague, P Chidambaram resign in the light of the Madras High Court rejecting the home minister’s plea for dismissing charges against him in an election petition.
He ridiculed the main Opposition party’s demand that Chidambaram should resign from the Central Cabinet after the recent order by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court rejecting PC’s plea to dismiss all the charges contained in an election petition against him by his AIADMK rival, Raja Kannappan, vis-à-vis his election to Lok Sabha from Sivaganga in May 2009.
Khurshid said the BJP had made it their daily routine to ask for the resignation of Mr Chidambaram on one issue or other.
“It’s an absolutely ridiculous demand,” said the Union Law Minister, indicating that the Union Home Minister need not resign over this Court development. Mr Chidambaram has been “such a pillar of strength to the UPA” that the BJP want to weaken it only by demanding his resignation on and off, the Law Minister contended.
On the row over graft allegations against a Special Judge in Andhra Pradesh who granted bail to a former Karnataka Minister ‘Galli’ Janardhana Reddy in an illegal mining case being investigated by the CBI, the Law Minister said that the mechanism provided under the recently passed ‘Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill’ would take care of such issues.