Singh, addressing party workers, said he sympathized with the two leaders. "We feel sorry for Kalmadi who is suffering hardships and also for Ashok Chavan. In my personal opinion, both of them are innocent. But whenever any corruption charges are levelled, Sonia Gandhi has to take action," he said.
Singh said Congress had always fought corruption and added it was because of the Right to Information law brought by the party government that the recent scams had been exposed.
According to him, judiciary should consider granting bail to accused in cases where chargesheet was filed and investigations were complete, in what was seen as a reference to DMK MP Kanimozhi, who is in jail for the 2G scam.
Singh's remarks drew comments from Congress leaders who felt such views neutralized the high ground claimed by the party with action against tainted leaders. While Chavan was sacked as Maharashtra chief minister following Adarsh housing scam, Kalmadi was removed as secretary of Congress parliamentary party and is now cooling his heels in Tihar jail for irregularities in Commonwealth Games.
A party leader said attributing innocence to Kalmadi and Chavan undercut the party's efforts to be seen as aggressive against corruption and gave an impression that they were sacrificed because of political compulsion.
In the wake of rising dirt over scams, with an aggressive opposition at its throat, the government held up the dismissals as proof of its intent to fight graft. The clean-up was extended to telecom ministry where DMK minister A Raja was also given the boot, finally landing him in jail. At the AICC plenary session in December, Sonia spoke of these actions and even gave a five-point formula to rid the administration of graft.
Led by the party chief, Congress made a campaign of the sackings of central and state leaders to question rival BJP about its track record on the issue of probity. It has repeatedly tried to embarrass the BJP by asking about the inaction on Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa who is accused of helping family members including sons with land allotments and patronizing illegal mining.
While Singh himself questioned the BJP in Pune, the pattern was visible at the AICC briefing too where the party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi was asked about BJP's demand that ministers accused of corruption be dropped in the reshuffle. Singhvi told reporters that the opposition need not lecture it on the issue as it had failed to act in Karnataka while Congress had acted even on prima facie allegations.
