New Delhi, Dec 7: Home minister L K Advani and Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi today offered to resign on the Babri Masjid demolition issue but Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rejected it holding that there was no allegation of corruption or misuse of office against them.As the entire Opposition in the Lok Sabha targeted Advani, Joshi and Tourism Minister Uma Bharati for being chargesheeted in the demolition case, the two ministers wrote out their resignations in full media glare in the House and gave it to Vajpayee seated next to them.In a brief intervention shortly after, Vajpayee said as there was no change in the position of court cases ever since the three ministers were inducted into office in March last year and no allegation of corruption or misuse of office was involved, the resignation demand or that they be barred from replying to certain questions, was `untenable'.Vajpayee sought to put an end to the issue that rocked the House for the last two days but Oppositionparties staged a walk-out protesting against the rejection of their demand. The Prime Minister assured the House that the cases would be allowed to proceed without any interference from the Government at the Centre or the state level and urged members to await the judicial verdict.Outside Parliament, Vajpayee told reporters that Advani and Joshi offered to resign from the Government but `I turned them down' as they were not involved in corruption or misuse of office. A big drama preceded the Prime Minister's intervention as Advani, constantly badgered by the Opposition which referred to his `high moral' stand taken by him in the hawala case, took out a pen and wrote on a piece of paper apparently his resignation.An unsure Joshi took a keen look at Advani's action and soon followed suit and had a brief chat with Vajpayee. While Advani was seen telling Joshi not to press for it, he handed over his letter to the Prime Minister.As the entire House and the press gallery were agog over what was in store, thePrime Minister read from a short statement to reject the Opposition demand saying neither the Constitution nor the law disqualified a minister from holding office merely because a chargesheet was filed by the police or formal charges were framed by the court.``The question as to who should be in the council of ministers of one of Prime Ministerial discretion and sense of political propriety. Many circumstances are relevant to the final decision of the Prime Minister on these issues," Vajpayee said. After repeated adjournments since yesterday and this morning in the House over the resignation demand, the Government and the Opposition agreed to have a short debate followed by the Prime Minister's reply.During the impromptu debate lasting 90 minutes, the entire Opposition wanted the three ministers to resign contending their presence in the Government would influence the prosecution in the demolition case.They said the BJP could not adopt double standards advocating one rule for other parties andanother for its own ministers. They cited the case of Buta Singh and R Muthaiah being asked to resign as ministers by Vajpayee after they were indicted by courts in corruption cases.The ruling party members, however, said that there could be no comparison between cases of corruption and those relating to political action.Meanwhile, the Congress tonight reacted sharply to Vajpayee's move to reject the resignation of three chargesheeted ministers and accused him of ``throwing to shreds all standards of political morality.'' ``The Prime Minister has thrown to shreds all political morality and the BJP stands exposed as an unprincipled party with one set of principles for itself and another set for others," deputy leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Madhavrao Scindia said.Stating that today was an unfortunate day for Indian Parliament, Scindia, who is also AICCgeneral secretary, said that it was only the first such episode and many more were going to follow where the BJP would stand exposed by its ownvery actions.``The irony of it is that Atal Behari Vajpayee is assuring us on behalf of his ministers that his minister will vigorously pursue case against himself. This is ludicrous. The Prime Minister unfortunately has not maintained the high moral standards expected of him," he added.
