Oppn stalls Parliament, seeks PM's resignation
Congress, govt reject demand, defend PM, offer full-fledged discussion on all issues raised by Oppn.
A combative opposition on Tuesday stalled both houses of Parliament seeking the Prime Minister’s resignation over the CAG report on coal blocks allocation, a demand rejected outright by the Congress and the government.
Though Manmohan Singh stated the government would give satisfactory answers to all issues raised by the opposition, the BJP vowed to continue with its offensive till the PM resigned.
“We are serious about it… This is not the only incident of corruption. There is 2G scam, Commonwealth Games scam and airport public-private partnership scam. Manmohan Singh’s government is corrupt,” BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Though there is no mention of PM or his office in the CAG report, the CAG estimated a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore due to coal block allocation without auction from 2004. Singh held the coal portfolio from 2004 to 2009.
“We are ready for any debate. We can give satisfactory answers to all issues,” Singh said.
Congress spokesperson Renuka Choudhary trashed BJP’s demand for the PM’s resignation and accused the opposition of spreading canards.
The government sought to turn the tables on the opposition, saying the allocation was made on the basis of recommendations of states ruled by non-UPA parties.
“Our PM can never do anything wrong,” telecom minister Kapil Sibal said and claimed that coal-bearing states— Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh — where the Congress was not in power had opposed allocation of coal mines to private firms through competitive bidding or auction.
“Chief ministers of these states had then stated that coal blocks should not be auctioned. This should be probed,” he said.
But the BJP rejected the charge. “Not even one (BJP-ruled) state is involved in it,” BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said.
Citing the alleged scam related to 2G spectrum, he said there was no meaning in referring the coal scam to the PAC and the JPC. “Whenever a matter was referred to PAC, it was not allowed to function by Congress members and the chairman’s report was not allowed to
be tabled.”
While the Lok Sabha could not transact any business, the Rajya Sabha elected Congress leader PJ Kurien the as deputy chairman of the house.