Amar: Patriot?

New Delhi, Jan. 7: The Samajwadi Party today threatened to pull out of the UPA for its “inability” to “act decisively” against Pakistan after 26/11, but Sonia Gandhi launched a firefight and pacified the ally.

The Congress chief called Amar Singh for a meeting with Pranab Mukherjee, the foreign minister, and Prithviraj Chavan, the junior minister in the PMO, who convinced the Samajwadi general secretary that India would not sit tight and allow Pakistan to “get away”.

Earlier, Amar said the Centre had vowed, at an all-party meeting, to act “firmly” against Pakistan within 15 days of the Mumbai attacks. “That deadline is over,” he told journalists.

He then said the Samajwadi parliamentary party would meet tomorrow to consider a pullout.

Sonia immediately called him for the meeting to her residence, after which Amar said there was “no question of support withdrawal” as Pranab had assured him of the government’s intent.

Sources said a meeting of the Samajwadi-Congress co-ordination committee was likely to be convened soon to brief Amar and party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav about the Pakistan developments.

“We have to take Amar Singh’s statement in the spirit in which it was intended and not go into the motive. He is seriously concerned about terrorism like a true patriot,” said M. Veerappa Moily, the Congress’s chief spokesperson.

The sources also said Amar’s muscle-flexing might hasten the process of sealing the Congress-Samajwadi alliance in Uttar Pradesh, “possibly on the Samajwadi’s terms”.

Congress sources privately claimed Amar’s Pakistan noises were a “ruse” to voice his “concern and disappointment” at the Centre’s “failure” to deliver on a more substantive issue: the assets case implicating Mulayam and his family.

The CBI is probing the case on a directive from the Supreme Court. A former Congressman, Vishwanath Chaturvedi, had filed a PIL questioning the assets acquired by Mulayam’s family when he was Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

The court yesterday ticked off the CBI for its plea to withdraw an earlier application in which it said there was no need to send a probe report to the Centre as it was an independent agency that wanted to prosecute respondents in accordance with law.

The CBI said it had to change its stand after receiving representations and inputs from Mulayam’s family members.

The bench, hearing the case, observed: “The CBI should not be fettered in any way and it should not be asked to submit its probe report to the Centre for further action.”

Amar met a Congress minister after the court’s rap. It is believed he was told there was “little” the Centre could do to “influence” the judiciary.

Congress sources conceded their efforts to “work on” Chaturvedi came to naught. Before parting company with the Congress, he had told a cabinet minister that even if the Centre managed to “dilute” the case, he had filed another 38 PILs against Mulayam and Amar in Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court.

It is believed Chaturvedi is in “close touch” with the BSP, the Samajwadi’s Uttar Pradesh adversary. He said he worked “autonomously” and was not answerable to anyone.