Coal scam: Manmohan Singh was 'remote controlled' by 10 Janpath, says BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said former prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was remote controlled by Congress president Sonia Gandhi with regard to the allocation of coal blocks to bidders, as also on other issues.

BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said Dr. Singh was stopped from allocating the coal blocks in a transparent manner by Sonia Gandhi.

"The corruption in the coal blocks allocation case is going on in the court. In 2004, the then coal minister, prime minister and coal secretary wanted the bidding of the coal blocks to take place in a transparent manner. But they were stopped from doing it, and everyone knows who was behind it. The then prime minister used to be in the office, but his remote control was in 10 Janpath," said Sharma.

"There is a difference in the way the UPA used to work and the way the NDA Government is working. During UPA regime, 204 coal blocks were allocated for free, but under this government, the auction of just 32 coal blocks so far has generated a profit of Rs. 3,06,700 crores, the difference is very clear," he added.

The Supreme Court earlier in the day stayed the summons to the former prime minister and five others by a trial court over the coal scam. The apex court also issued a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), asking it to file a response in three weeks.

Dr. Singh had earlier on March 25 filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the summons issued to him by a trial court in connection with the coal blocks allocation scam.

Upset over the summons issued to him, the former prime minister had also stated he was sure that the truth would prevail in the matter.

A special CBI court in Delhi had summoned the former prime minister, former coal secretary P.C. Parakh, industrialist Kumar Manglam Birla and three others in the coal blocks allocation case on March 11.

The court summoned them on alleged charges of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. They were asked to appear before the court on April 8.