BJP hits out at Sonia for defending PM on coal blocks issue

Arun Jaitley says Gandhi may see Singh's alleged role in the coal allocation case as a 'virtue' but BJP feels this is nothing less than a scam

BJP today hit out at Congress President Sonia Gandhi for defending Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the coal blocks issue and demanded that the original CBI affidavit on the status report and emails reportedly sent to the agency by the PMO be made public.

Hours after Gandhi dismissed opposition demand for Singh's resignation, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said he was not surprised by her response.

He said that Gandhi may see Singh's alleged role in the coal allocation case as a "virtue" but BJP feels this is nothing less than a scam.

Jaitley sought to know what was the need for the Law Minister to call the CBI director, Law officers and others to see the report and make changes in it.

Deputy Leader of BJP in the Upper House Ravi Shankar Prasad found the government contention that Law Minister Ashwani Kumar was only making "grammatical corrections" as surprising.

"This is the first time that the CBI needed tutorship of the Law Minister. BJP demands that the original affidavit of the status report and the report after grammatical corrections were made by the Law Minister as a tutor be made public. These should also be submitted to the Supreme Court," Prasad said.

Jaitley maintained that what changes were made in the report is immaterial but this definitely shows government interference in the CBI's functioning.

He demanded that the emails exchanged by the CBI and the PMO in regard to the coal scam issue be made public. He maintained that the government will have to concede that emails were exchanged as technology will prove there was interference.

"The Prime Minister should also introspect where he is leading the country," Jaitley said.