Opposition scales up attack on Singh

The BJP on Sunday scaled up its attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the scams that have hit his government, with senior leaders LK Advani and Arun Jaitley taking turns to attack him.

The BJP on Sunday scaled up its attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the scams that have hit his government, with senior leaders LK Advani and Arun Jaitley taking turns to attack him.

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"Today's news reports about the removal of two Union ministers generally emphasise that it is Soniaji who has sacked 'two PM's men'," Advani said.

"Sheer self-respect demands that the PM calls it a day, and orders an early general election."

Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi differed: "The correct position is that it was the joint decision of the Congress president and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh."

In Delhi, BJP's youth wing activists sought to take their protest straight to the PM's door, leading to clash with the police, a barricade being broken and water cannons being used. BJP's Delhi chief Vijay Goel and the party's national youth wing chief Anurag Thakur were arrested.

Jaitley on his part told CNN-IBN that as Indian bureaucrats were trained to be "conservative", PMO joint secretary Shatrughan Singh would have briefed Pulok Chatterjee, principal secretary to the Prime Minister "either orally or in writing", about the meeting in which the CBI's status report in the coal scam was vetted.

The suggestion: It could safely be presumed "somebody in the Prime Minister's Office (was) guiding the course of events" (vetting of the CBI's report).

The PM was coal minister at a time when many coal blocks were allocated, leading to a CAG censure.

The developments happened on a day when former railway minister Pawan Bansal, one of the two ministers who lost their jobs following controversy, defended himself in Chandigarh in front of party workers: "I am not associated with the case... I assure you that nothing will come out from this case."

Bansal lost his job after his nephew Vijay Singla was accused of taking a bribe to fix a railway board appointment.