Jaya urges Kalam to probe ordinance issue

Terming as "Hobson's choice" Congress President Sonia Gandhi's resignation as an member of parliament and chairperson of the National Advisory Council, All India Anna Dravid Munetra Kazhagam General Secretary and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday appealed to the President to go into the entire episode of the Centre "…shutting down Parliament for rushing through an Ordinance in support of Mrs Gandhi."

In a hard-hitting statement in Chennai, she said in order to protect the position of Mrs Gandhi, even Parliament had been adjourned, "without any qualms in a blatantly brazen manner, destroying a sacred convention built over decades.'' She appealed to the President to ensure that such happenings did not recur.

Sonia Resigns

Stating that the resignation of Mrs Gandhi and her "…usual spiel about sacrifice and nobility cut no ice,'' Miss Jayalalithaa said she had only tried to make a virtue out of a compelling necessity, which would have seen her disqualified.

She charged that a high drama of sacrifice had been enacted, knowing that an Ordinance merely to protect her position would draw severe flak and not pass muster.

"The spin doctors of the Congress party have rushed to portray this embarrassing, inelegant discomfiture as an act of sacrifice," she said and added that the Election Commission's statement that the "law is the same for everyone" was the last straw on the camel's back, sending them desperately scurrying for cover.