Prez The Red Button

The issue in question: amendments to the Prevention of Disqualification Act, 1959, which incorporated 56 posts to be exempted from the list of offices of profit. Kalam, after "wide-ranging judicial and legal consultations", had asked the government whether the bill had a "comprehensive criteria for the just, fair and reasonable application (of the law) across the states and Union territories in a clear and transparent manner"; and questioned the "soundness and propriety" of making it applicable with retrospective effect.

Over 40-odd MPs and 250-plus MLAs had complaints against them, of whom only three MPs, including Sonia Gandhi, had resigned voluntarily. Jaya Bachchan, the original one on the block, had been forced to quit her RS seat. Every party was under the scanner, but the one most affected was the CPI(M) with 10 MPs. The most prominent among them—LS speaker Somnath Chatterjee, chairman of the Santiniketan-Sriniketan Development Authority. The BJP’s V.K. Malhotra, Najma Heptullah and Jayaben Thakkar also fell in the grey category but it seems the party was willing for the sacrifice—as long as they got to see the CPI(M) MPs squirm, or so say sources.