Despite Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of state for Commerce, apologising to Culture Minister Ambika Soni for seeking her resignation in the wake of the Ram Setu affidavit fiasco, the internal wrangles in the Congress appeared far from over on Tuesday.
NEW DELHI: Despite Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of state for Commerce, apologising to Culture Minister Ambika Soni for seeking her resignation in the wake of the Ram Setu affidavit fiasco, the internal wrangles in the Congress appeared far from over on Tuesday.
With party chief Sonia Gandhi strongly disapproving of the way Ramesh went public in the matter, he rang up the beleaguered Culture Minister yesterday to say that he was "sorry and still remained her friend".
Ramesh, once a close associate of the Culture Minister, earlier the AICC General Secretary and Political Secretary to the Congress President, told a "hurt" Soni to "let bygones, be bygones", party sources said.
However, the matter appears far from closed, with a terse "no comment" being the response of Soni when asked about Ramesh's apology and the Union Minister himself keeping away from the media.
The sources said that Ramesh's apology to Soni was prompted by the party high command's displeasure over his remarks.
However, senior leader R K Dhawan insisted that he was "firm" in his statement that it would have been better if Soni had resigned on moral grounds.
He suggested that there was no question of regretting his remarks as has been done by Ramesh.
The AICC has already sought to put a lid on the controversy, making it clear to partymen to stop the campaign for and against Soni and claiming that the matter of affidavit stood settled following the rectification of the "error".
Soni said she had sought an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to explain her position in the controversial issue. She has already met party president Sonia Gandhi to give her side of the story.
Immediately after returning from her visit to Japan on Friday night, she suspended two senior Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials in connection with the affidavit and an internal inquiry is on.
The Congress on its part is maintaining that it has not taken any view or decision on the issue of the resignation of Soni.
The BJP has been demanding resignations of three Union Ministers.
Besides Soni, it is demanding the scalp of Law Minister H R Bharadwaj and Shipping Minister T R Baalu, who only on Monday announced that the Centre would go ahead with the Sethusamudram project and would approach the apex court soon for its green signal for work in the Adam's Bridge area.
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