Extremely major changes made in CBI affidavit: BJP

BJP today alleged that "extremely major" changes have been made in CBI's status report to the Supreme Court on coal block allocations to protect the government and made it clear that Parliament will not be allowed to run unless Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar resign.
The main Opposition also slammed the government for trying to get the crucial Food Security Bill passed in the Lok Sabha today without any debate even though it claimed it wanted the legislation to be passed.
The party put the resignation of Kumar and Railway Minister P K Bansal as a pre-condition for support to the Food as well as the Land Acquisition Bill.

The CBI affidavit in the Supreme Court today gave fresh ammunition to BJP which charged the alterations made by Kumar were aimed at protecting the government on the coal issue.
The coal portfolio was held by the Prime Minister during the period under scanner for coal block allocations.
"The Prime Minister and Law Minister have lost credibility and moral right to continue in office," BJP President Rajnath Singh told reporters.

Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley referred to Para 19 of the CBI affidavit and said the portion where the probe agency had stated that "a system regarding allocation, weightage and marks was non-existent" has been removed at the instance of the minister.

Similarly, the finding by CBI that no broadsheets or charts were prepared by the Screening Committee has also been deleted by the minister. Another significant change is removal of the section where the agency wants to know why the criteria of auction suggested by CAG in 2004 has not been followed even till 2010.
"These are extremely major changes... The investigation was directed at the Coal Minister and the Prime Minister. In a way, the report was shown to possible suspects," Jaitley said.