New Delhi: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's top aide Ahmed Patel has rubbished claims that she overrode Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's authority to muscle in a final say in policy decisions.
Patel, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary and party strategist, told NDTV: "I am ready to resign if it can be proved that files were cleared by Mrs Gandhi."
Former media advisor to the Prime Minister Sanjaya Baru has caused much heartburn with his memoirs 'The Accidental PM: the making and unmaking of Manmohan Singh', where he claims Singh was "defanged" in his second term.
Baru writes that PMO Principal Secretary Pulok Chatterjee held regular meetings with Sonia Gandhi, and sought her instructions on important files to be signed by the PM. He also claims Sonia Gandhi decided key appointments to the PMO and to the Cabinet.
"I am a member of the Congress core group, I'm witness to what happened," Ahmed Patel told NDTV in an exclusive interview from Bharuch in Gujarat. "If any Minister can say any file was going to Mrs Gandhi, or through Mrs Gandhi, I will resign."
But he did admit that "sometimes on policy level matters, there is a Congress ideology, when a government takes a decision, party will have its say."
Mr Patel also dismissed claims that Pulok Chatterjee was Sonia Gandhi's appointee in the PM's office, NDTV reports. "The PM may have chosen him on merit, after seeing Pulok work with Mrs Gandhi," he said, adding, "Mrs Gandhi may have met Mr Chatterjee but at social functions, but not to clear files."
The BJP has made much noise over the book, claiming it was proof that the Prime Minister's authority was undermined to usher in rampant corruption.
Mr Patel hit back: "Why don't you see how the (BJP-led) NDA government functioned, they had the RSS as an extra-constitutional authority?"
