Advani slams govt for not sacking law minister

BJP leader LK Advani Thursday targeted the government for refusing to sack law minister Ashwani Kumar even after strong Supreme Court observations on the coal scam report issue and said that Parliament was adjourned sine die early to ward off opposition pressure.

BJP leader LK Advani Thursday targeted the government for refusing to sack law minister Ashwani Kumar even after strong Supreme Court observations on the coal scam report issue and said that Parliament was adjourned sine die early to ward off opposition pressure.

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In his latest blog posting titled "The Emperor has no clothes", Advani alleged that the government's attitude was similar to the regime that existed during the Emergency days.

He said that despite a vociferous demand from the Opposition for the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Kumar and severe criticism by the courts, there has been no move to remove them.

"Having decided to brazenly defend its two ministers, more particularly its law minister, whose dropping from the government would have made the PM's continuance untenable, the government adjourned Parliament sine die two days ahead of schedule on May 8 instead of May 10," Advani said.

He maintained that the Budget Session had failed to transact any business in the last several days as almost the entire opposition was angrily demanding that the government be made to pay for the two megascams -- coalgate and railgate.

Advani referred to the Supreme Court observations Wednesday and said it had severely chastised the law minister and CBI for what they had done.

The Supreme Court had Wednesday pulled up CBI, PMO and coal ministry officials for changing the "heart" of the coal scam probe report and directed the government to come out with a law before July 10 to insulate the agency from "external influence and intrusion".