Manmohan Singh facing CBI charges a 'blot' for Congress: Javadekar

Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said that the coal blocks allocation scam is a

Congress scam, and added that the fact that former prime minister Manmohan Singh has had to face CBI charges is a 'blot' for the grand old party.

"Today, what has been exposed was already known as the coal scam. It is a Congress scam, because, the letters used to come from somewhere else in the government. [Former Congress leader] Jayanthi Natarajan has already stated how the letters used to come to recommend or to block projects. Even in coal, it is a well known fact that there was extraneous influence and therefore CBI's enquiry," Javadekar told the media.

"Yesterday, [Congress leader] Digvijay Singh in his address said that Manmohan Singh wanted to do an auction, but the Congress did not allow him. Today, because of this Congress scam, Manmohan ji, an economist prime minister, has to face CBI charges. This is yet another blot on the Congress and now all other parties, who are unnecessarily siding with the Congress, will also reconsider their stand," he added.

Earlier in the day, a special CBI court summoned the former prime minister, along with former coal secretary P C Parakh, Aditya Birla Group chairman K M Birla and three others in connection with the coal blocks allocation scam.

The court has summoned them on April 8 for offences of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and under provisions of prevention of corruption act.