Jaipur, February 10: Rajasthan Minister Ameen Khan, who has created a controversy by his remarks that Pratibha Patil was “rewarded” with the post of President for her loyalty to the Gandhi family, has been asked to resign.
Sources said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot asked Khan, Minister of State for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, to put in his papers in the wake of the personal remarks made by him against the President, which he has since denied.
They said Gehlot, who is in Delhi, discussed the issue with Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s Political Secretary Ahmed Patel and Union Minister Mukul Wasnik, in-charge of party affairs in Rajasthan.
The chief minister is also understood to have talked to the President and expressed regrets over the remarks made by Khan.
Addressing Congress workers in Pali district yesterday, Khan had reportedly said that Patil did not ask for any position but was made the President due to her loyalty to the Gandhi family and cited instances of her association with Indira Gandhi.
A section of the local media quoted Khan as having told party workers that Patil was so dedicated that “she used to make tea and cook food at Indira Gandhi’s residence”. Due to her honesty, devotion and loyalty, she is now the President, Khan said. Khan, however, has denied having said so.
The minister clarified: “I just gave an example of loyalty and did not intend to make any comment on the President. I said that she was a committed and simple worker. After observing resentment among party workers over not getting organisational posts, I said party workers should be loyal to their leader as well as the party,” Khan said.
“She (Patil) was loyal to the Gandhi-Nehru family and the Congress party and served with dedication and commitment even in the days when Indira Gandhi was not in power,” he said.
On his return to Jaipur from Delhi, Gehlot sought an explanation from Khan for his remark and then met Governor Shivraj Patil.
It is learnt Sonia Gandhi had taken strong exception to Amin Khan’s comments that amounted to lowering the dignity of the office of the President.
Sonia is learnt to have instructed Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who met senior party leaders in New Delhi on Wednesday, to remove the minister.
—Agencies