Soni meets Sonia, passes the buck to law ministry

NEW DELHI: The "no-proof of Ram's existence" affidavit has opened up cracks within the Congress. Congress circles were unhappy with Ramesh for shooting off his mouth, and feared that he might have set back the effort to still the upheaval.
Though Soni measured her response, it was clear that she was not ready to be made the scapegoat for the goof-up.The culture minister, who rushed to Sonia Gandhi with a thick sheaf of papers to argue out her case, did not forget to point out that the affidavit had been settled by Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam.
The stress on the role of the law officer was interpreted as her insistence that law minister H R Bhardwaj cannot wash his hands of the affidavit.
While it is unlikely that there will be any political casualties from the controversy, a cabinet reshuffle could be on the cards following the embarrassment faced by the government. Soni had on Friday suspended two ASI officials - director (administration) Chandrashekhar and assistant director (monuments) V Bakshi - immediately after her return. She followed it up by seeking an explanation from Anshu Vaishya, director-general, ASI.
Talking to newspersons on Saturday, Soni was at pains to point out that she had suggested three amendments to be carried out in the draft affidavit shown to her on September 7. According to her, while two of the controversial mentions were erased, the third one - that doubted the existence of Lord Ram and described by the minister as responsible for sparking the "political turmoil" - was retained.
Asked whether she would own up the responsibility for the bungle, Soni said that she had submitted all the relevant papers to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh and would quit if they held her liable. Though Soni said she would not allow any scapegoating, the government, anxious to limit the fallout of the controversy which had swiftly been seized upon by rival BJP, was clearly in an overdrive to fix responsibility.
There were indications that the role of the law officer who helped ready the affidavit after corrections ordered by Soni was also under the scanner.
Within the culture ministry itself, the needle of suspicion seemed to be pointing towards an ASI officer from south India known to be sympathetic to the Sethusamudram project. Incidentally, ASG Subramaniam, whom Soni pointed out in her briefing, is also from Tamil Nadu. The coincidence has set the Congress circles abuzz whether the two were sympathetic to the Dravidian viewpoint on Lord Ram. The strong intervention by Karunanidhi from Salem in Tamil Nadu confirmed Congress' estimate that the crucial southern ally would not brook any re-think over the project.