BJP demands resignation of PM, removal of law minister

New Delhi, April 23 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and removal of Law Minister Ashwini Kumar in view of a "series of scams" and the way the government "sought to suppress the truth".

"Today (Tuesday), the BJP parliamentary party has decided that the prime minister should resign and law minister should be removed in the light of the series of scams and the brazen way in which the government has sought to suppress the truth from coming out," party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

The BJP leader said the coal block affidavit issue, in which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was being "pressurised", was also discussed at the meeting.

"In this, Law Minister Ashwini Kumar and the Prime Minister's Office have a role. Ashwini Kumar was trying to correct the grammar of the CBI affidavit. Since when did CBI need an English tutor like the law minister," he retorted.

"This is preposterous. The PMO (Prime Minister's Office) also has a role in coalgate issue".

He said the BJP parliamentary party meeting, chaired by senior party leader L.K. Advani, was agitated over reports in the media that the Joint Parliament Committee (JPC) commented on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee while trying to save Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

"We will not cooperate with the government. We will raise this issue in the house. Running of the house is the responsibility of the government, not ours," he added.

"This (clean chit to prime minister) will be discussed in the JPC meeting. But MPs are angry over what has come in the media. The Manmohan Singh government indulges in corruption again and again and tries to shamelessly hide it again and again," Prasad said.

Reacting to BJP allegations, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said: "The matter is pending in the court. Therefore, it is inappropriate to go into the merits of any of the issues."

"But since the BJP wants to politicise everything, perhaps it would be appropriate from them to account for the omissions and permissions which took place in telecommunications and in coal during their regime in 1999 to 2004," the Congress leader added.