New Delhi: Allies of the ruling UPA voiced their unhappiness yesterday over the government’s handling of the controversial ordinance - first by passing it and then axing it after Rahul Gandhi’s protest.
Both the United Progressive Alliance partners, the NCP and the National Conference, appeared miffed after the cabinet, headed by Prime Minster Manmohan Singh, took a U-turn and withdrew the ordinance and the bill that seeks to save convicted lawmakers from disqualification. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who was not in agreement with Wednesday’s move, did not look too happy as he came out of the cabinet meeting.
“We (NCP) have communicated our views. What I said was said in complete secrecy. I made my views clear,” the agriculture minister told reporters.
National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, who too was not at home with the U-turn, was blunt: “It was a cabinet decision then, it is a cabinet decision now... I am not upset, but I am not happy.”
Earlier, Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal said that if the ordinance was withdrawn, it would prove the Gandhi scion was bigger than the central government. IANS
