No trouble in alliance with DMK, says Congress

The Congress on Thursday gave enough indications that there was no trouble to its alliance with Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam despite the party strongly backing former telecom minister A Raja and described the move as the ally's "internal matter".

 Senior party leaders speaking on condition of anonymity sought to point out that DMK has not spoken anything against the Congress and that it was natural for its southern partner "to speak favourably for their old colleague, who was a five-time MP."

Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, "It is not appropriate for any political party to comment on decisions of another party. Whatever decision, the DMK has taken or not taken is their internal matter. It is not for Congress to comment on it."

In a resolution passed by its top decision making body, DMK said in Chennai that Raja's arrest did not prove his guilt in the 2G spectrum case and accused the opposition of trying to "malign" the party on the issue.

Singhvi also did not find anything wrong in DMK giving a clean chit to Raja and added, "We are not commenting on Raja being guilty or not guilty but at the same time claimed a high moral ground on action in corruption cases."

He said the true test for any party in government is not that an allegation will not surface but the action it takes when such a thing emerges, adding that on that count Congress has always taken action.

Singhvi also attacked the BJP for dragging the Prime Minister into the 2G Spectrum allocation controversy and questioned the role of the top leaders of the main opposition party into Karnataka land scam scandal.

"Due to Prime Minister's silence for three years in a bid to save his chair, the nation had to face such a huge loss for three years," Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaitley said.

BJP President Nitin Gadkari alleged that the Prime Minister and his cabinet were responsible for the policy decisions on 2G spectrum allocation.  "Others cannot get away with a clean image by sacrificing Kalmadi and Raja -- though the two may be guilty. The government cannot make them scapegoats and get away," he added.

Singhvi reacted sharply to it saying the BJP should first start "house cleaning from their backyards in Karnataka" and questioning "should Advani and two Opposition leaders of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sushama Swaraj and Arun Jaitley also resign on same principles. They looked the other way in the case of Karnataka and Uttarakhand".

He also accused the BJP of "turning a blind eye to Yeddyurppa's corruption". He dismissed speculations of any problem to the Congress-DMK alliance saying, "There is an alliance in place at this time and there is other development contrary to it. Why you are speculating?"