BJP on Wednesday termed as “not surprising” remarks of ex-Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh that the Prime Minister must be counted as a “conspirator” in the coal blocks allocation case and said he should make public of how allotments were made when PM was incharge of Coal Ministry.
“The time has come for Parekh to speak up. He has spoken a little, he should come out clean now, make public statements of how files were disposed off at that time (when the PM was incharge of Coal Ministry). ...How chits were received from Congress party headquarters in the PMO and PMO transmitted those instructions to the Coal Ministry for allotment of coal blocks,” party leader Yashwant Sinha said.
Mr. Sinha’s comments came after Mr. Parakh, against whom CBI had on Tuesday registered a case in connection with the scam, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the final decision maker and must be counted as a “conspirator” in the case.
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“I am not surprised that Parakh has said that the Prime Minister should be accused No. 1 in the coal scam. We are all aware of the fact that he was the Coal Minister during the period of the coal scam and every allotment of coal block has been done with his signature,” he said.
Mr. Sinha also wondered how a person who finally approved the coal block allotments could escape responsibility and how come more responsibility be put on those who just made recommendations to the PM.