Digvijay again: US pressure freed Anderson

He said there was a Cabinet Committee in the government of India which had taken all decisions regarding this case and the only task of the government of Madhya Pradesh was to get the decisions implemented.

His statement came as a rude shock to Congress colleagues who were busy fending charges of collusion on the part of the then Rajiv Gandhi government in New Delhi and Arjun Singh government in Bhopal in the safe passage of Anderson.

The Congress proffered a by-now-familiar explanation for Singhs remarks from the US where he has gone for his wifes treatment. Party has always maintained that all questions that are raised in such situations must be answered properly and responsibility should also be fixed. The same norm applies to this case also. There may be different personal views, said AICC media department chairman Janardan Dwivedi.

Senior party leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi,however,chose to speak out,disagreeing with Singhs views and stating that the arrest and release of Anderson happened in Bhopal and the Centre had no role.

Late tonight,after his remarks led to an uproar within and outside the party,Digvijay Singh tried to do some damage control. He was quoted by NDTV as saying Rajivji left his campaign and came to Bhopal as PM. He did not release Anderson. Why dont you ask any of the following persons: Swaraj Puri,then SP,Bhopal; Moti Singh; then Collector Bhopal; Brahm Swarup,then Chief Secretary,and Arjun Singhji,then Chief Minister?

Earlier,Singhs views were echoed by Vasant Sathe who saw a collusion between the Madhya Pradesh government and some people at the Centre which allowed Anderson to leave the country. But Sathe has been sidelined within the party. What perplexes Congress leaders is the way Singh,who is believed to be close to Rahul Gandhi,chooses to embarrass the party and the government on crucial occasions.

On May 19,when the Congress was trying to steer clear of the controversy over the delay in hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru by leaving it to due process of law,Digvijay Singh queered the pitch,saying Afzal Guru should be hanged at the earliest.

Barely five weeks earlier,Singh had given ammunition to the Opposition by attacking the governments anti-Naxal strategy. In an article in The Economic Times on April 14,he accused Home Minister P Chidambaram of intellectual arrogance and differed with his strategy on Naxalites.

He (Chidambaram) is extremely intelligent,articulate,committed and sincere politician but extremely rigid once he makes up his mind. I have been a victim of his intellectual arrogance many times… I have differed with his strategy that does not take into consideration the people living in the affected area who ultimately matter. He is treating it purely as a law and order problem without taking into consideration the issues that affect the tribals, Singh wrote in a signed article.

An embarrassed Congress sought to control the damage,cautioning partymen against expressing personal views in public,but it exposed the government to Opposition attacks in Parliament. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had then chosen to show her anger by denying Singh an appointment who had to call on Chidambaram and apologise to him publicly. But barely a fortnight later,Singh was at it again,questioning the use of paramilitary forces in anti-Naxal operations in difficult terrains.

Before that incident,Singh had gone to Azamgarh to visit families of those arrested in connection with terror attacks. He revived the issue of the Batla House police encounter in Delhi by demanding a judicial inquiry,much to the embarrassment of the party and the government. He publicly stated that Rahul Gandhi would visit the Shibli college in Azamgarh though the Amethi MP had no such plan.

Singh has also been upsetting party allies. While Sonia Gandhi made up her mind to go with the NCP in the Maharashtra Assembly election,Singh continued to take potshots at the NCP,asking its leadership to merge the party with the Congress. He also opposed an alliance with the NCP. It was the same when the Congress was holding seat-sharing talks with the Samajwadi Party in the last Lok Sabha elections. Singh was then taking swipes at Amar Singh.

Congress sources say the party leadership is absolutely clueless why such a senior leader loves embarrassing the party and the government so often. He seems to have complete disregard for party discipline, said a senior leader. Party leaders have started calling him Leader of Opposition in the Congress but he seems to like this description,probably because the party has so far shown a lenient approach. It remains to be seen whether the Congress high command remains indulgent towards him after his latest salvo this time against the Rajiv Gandhi government.