A Raja resigns after PM Manmohan Singh’s veiled threat

Embattled Union telecom minister A Raja resigned on Sunday night after putting up an obstinate fight to stay put despite the mounting pressure from the opposition and the Congress to quit over the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

The resignation comes ahead of today’s Supreme Court hearing of two petitions alleging his involvement in the spectrum scam and the growing view in the UPA that his continuance was getting untenable.

What seems to have prompted his decision is the veiled threat to the DMK issued by prime minister (PM) Manmohan Singh after the Congress core committee meet at noon.

The party’s leadership, which had so far been standing solidly behind Raja, seems to have given up after Singh’s stern message that the minister must quit tonight. Raja, who had maintained that he won’t resign till a few hours ago, rushed to a meeting with the PM late in the evening and handed over the letter.

The PM has decided to retain the telecom portfolio until further orders.

This brings to an end the months of bitter battle between an isolated Raja and the 18-member DMK in the Lok Sabha on one hand and the entire opposition, comptroller & auditor general of India (CAG), Telecom Regulatory Authorities of India (TRAI) and the “corporate lobbyists” on the other.

Since the matter is coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court  and the signal emanating the apex court was serious enough, the PM wanted Raja resignation’s on his table before the hearing began. He didn’t want to be seen acting in the matter only after a stinging comment from the bench.

Though Raja put up a brave face by claiming that he had resigned “in order to avoid embarrassment to the government and maintain peace in Parliament and also on the advice of DMK chief M Karunanidhi,” sources in the government say that the PM had sent out clear signals that “enough is enough”. 

The core committee meet, attended by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Ahmad Patel, political secretary to the AICC president, discussed at length the consequences of Raja refusal to resign.

The PM is reported to have made it clear that he will be left with no option but to sack him irrespective of political consequences. He conveyed in no uncertain terms that even if this leads to a fall of his government and country going in for a mid-term polls, he won’t bother.

The stern warning was conveyed to the M Karunanidhi by key Congress functionaries. Realising that if he insisted on retaining Raja, the DMK-Congress alliance will be threatened and it may affect the party in the next April assembly polls, the DMK chief settled for the head of his staunch loyalists.