Now, Sahai in BJP's line of fire

Putting more pressure on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on the issue of allocation of coal blocks, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now demanding the resignation of Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai for recommending a company to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which his brother is a member.

Sahai had allegedly written a letter to the PM recommending SKS Ispat and Power Limited for allocation of two coal blocks. The tourism minister had also urged the PM for his personal intervention.

Senior BJP leaders are of the view that since they have already asked for the resignation of the prime minister on the issue of coal block allocation, there is no doubt the party also wanted Sahai to resign, as “his involvement in the coal block allocation process has been proved”.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders have launched nation-wide campaign against the UPA government on the coal block allocation scam, and held a demonstration in Delhi. BJP plans to carry out similar protests in all major cities across the country from September 1 to September 2 and also after the monsoon session of Parliament is over on September 7.

“There is no doubt that the UPA government is the most corrupt. Earlier, the Bofors scam was considered the biggest in which Rs 64 crore taken as bribe,” said Arun Jaitley, leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha.

Jaitley alleged that when the Union government lost Rs 1.76 lakh crore in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the prime minister had claimed he was not directly involved, but in the coal block allocation scandal, private companies were allocated coal blocks when the PM was the minister in-charge of the coal ministry.

“We demand the government to cancel the allocation (of coal blocks) and auction them,” said Jaitley.

Senior BJP leaders said if the Union government wanted the Parliament to function then the PM would have to resign, and cancel all the allocated coal blocks.