Personal integrity one thing, responsibility as PM another, says Trivedi

All India Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi on Wednesday said that personal integrity and responsibility of the Prime Minister are two different things after the court issued summons to former prime minister Manmohan Singh in connection with the coal blocks allocation scam.

"One is the personal integrity and the second is that how responsible you are as the PM and a minister in whichever department because at that point of time only your personal integrity is not enough, at that point in time you have got to be a soldier guarding the borders of the country," Trivedi told ANI here.

Trivedi asserted the fact that you have to forget the party and the party bosses when you are the Prime Minister.

"If you are at the top and you did not know what was happening, that was bad enough, and then you are not capable of remaining there. But if you are at the top, and if you knew what was happening, may be you are not the beneficial yourself, then that's even worse," he added.

Trivedi also said that Manmohan Singh needs to answer on both counts.

Earlier in the day, a special CBI court summoned former prime minister Manmohan Singh, 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.