The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will not let Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to escape from the responsibility with respect to missing files related to the coal block allocation scam, Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary Ananth Kumar said here on Saturday.
The NDA would demand a reply by Dr. Singh to both the Houses of Parliament on the issue, he said.
“We are not ready to listen to the reply by Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal. We want the Prime Minister himself to reply on the issue to both the Houses,” Mr. Kumar told journalists in Bangalore. “We will demand Dr. Singh’s reply as soon as both the Houses meet on Monday,” he said.
Expressing concern over the missing files, he took serious exception to Dr. Singh’s statement that he was not the custodian of the coal ministry files. “How can the Prime Minister escape from his constitutional responsibility by putting the entire blame on a ministry?” he wondered, and said, “The Prime Minister should become a protector of the country’s public property and not just his chair.”
Vadra issue
Accusing All-India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi of trying to protect Robert Vadra with respect to the Haryana land scam, Mr. Kumar said the NDA would take up this issue in Parliament next week.
