Union Culture Minister Ambika Soni has offered to resign over the fiasco in the Supreme Court concerning the Ram Sethu affidavits.
"I will not take even a minute to relinquish my post if my leaders (Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi) ask me to do so," she told reporters in New Delhi on Saturday.
She was asked to comment about the remarks of Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh, who had stated that he would have resigned if he had been the Culture Minister. The affidavit had been wrongly drafted by the Archaeological Survey of India and the Culture Minister was not even aware of it, he had said.
"I am not Jairam Ramesh," Soni shot back.
Earlier, Soni had been summoned by Congress President Sonia Gandhi to explain how the ASI filed the controversial affidavit on the Sethusamudram project, which stated that there was no historical evidence that Lord Ram ever existed.
"Soni is making an effort to explain her point of view and the remedial measures that the ministry can take to control the damage done by the affidavit, which has now been withdrawn," conceded party sources.
The minister was earlier scheduled to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but could not do so as the latter underwent a surgery on Saturday morning and had been advised rest. It was then that Sonia took charge of the situation.
Soni, who returned from her trip to Japan on Friday evening, held a meeting of officials of her ministry and suspended Director (Administration) Chandrashekhar and Assistant Director (Monuments) V Bakshi following an internal inquiry by ASI Director General Anshu Vaishya.
"This is a straight case of making these two officials sacrificial goat. Ambika Soni is the minister incharge and she should resign," Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Prakash Javadekar told rediff.com.
"How can a small time official take such a big decision," he asked.
Meanwhile, Soni has also ordered an inquiry into the issue.
The inquiry has been set up so that responsibility can be fixed for the affidavit filed by the ASI in the Supreme Court, official sources said, adding that the inquiry was ordered by the secretary of culture ministry.
With inputs from PTI