The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reiterated its demand for resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his alleged role in the coal blocks allocation and a judicial inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge.
The party’s national secretary Ananth Kumar alleged here on Friday that the issue had exposed the double standards of the Prime Minister, the Congress and the UPA Chairperson. They had sought the resignations of A. Raja and Dayanidhi Maran of their coalition partner, DMK, when the 2G Specturm scam broke out and were using a different yardstick when it came to themselves, he said.
“How can there be a fair probe even by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) when the accused leader, the Prime Minister, is influential enough to tamper with the evidences. Mr. Singh is directly responsible for the irregularities in coal blocks allocation and he must go to allow an independent inquiry”, the BJP leader said addressing a press conference here.
On not allowing a debate in Parliament on the issue, Mr. Ananth Kumar said it was an issue of corruption and the Congress had nothing to talk except to justify or cover up its misdeed.
The BJP was ready to take the blame of stalling Parliament, as it did in case of 2G, and save Rs. 1.56 lakh-crore to the nation as the government had fixed base price of Rs. 14,000 crore each for re-auction of nine licences, even at the cost of Rs. 25 crore loss for Parliament session, he asserted.
Mr. Ananth Kumar stated that the worth of coal in 142 blocks allotted irregularly by the Prime Minister in the capacity of Coal Minister was a whopping Rs. 51 lakh-crore and the BJP was committed to carrying out the fight in and outside Parliament to save the nation’s wealth by intensifying the agitation from September 8.
