By IANS
Kolkata : Tourism and Culture minister Ambika Soni should step down in the wake of a controversial affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on the Sethusamudrum project, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said here Friday.
Asked to spell out the Congress’s stand on the issue, the minister told reporters: “I really do not know… I cannot speak on behalf of Soni who is a good friend of mine. But had such an incident occurred if I had been the culture minister, I would have certainly resigned.”
The Archaeological Survey of India, under the culture ministry, had said in the affidavit this week that the epic Ramayana had no historical basis.
Following an uproar from Hindu groups and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the government was forced to withdraw the affidavit Friday.
Drawing a parallel with former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had resigned after a train accident when he was a railway minister in the 1950s, Ramesh said: “There are no two ways about it. One should accept responsibility and resign.”
The minister was in the city to attend a meeting of the Tea Board of India to facilitate opening of closed tea gardens in north Bengal.