PM's offer to face CBI in coal scam "meaningless": BJP

An impartial probe into the coal scam can only take place once Prime Minister Manmohan Singh steps down from office, BJP said today in reaction to his offer to face CBI in a coal block allocation case.
Singh's questioning by CBI will be "meaningless" as the agency comes under the PMO's purview, BJP said as it once again raised the call for the Prime Minister to resign over the alleged scam.
The opposition party accused Singh of "hiding" things and having made similar statements in the past.
The party cited the example of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G Spectrum scam, saying Singh never appeared before it despite a strong demand for the same and had instead offered to do so before the Public Accounts Committee, which anyway had no power to summon him.

"The only option before him is to quit, come clean and appear before CBI... The question is that the country's Prime Minister is under suspicion. If CBI questions the country's Prime Minister, what signals would it send. That is why we have said the Prime Minister should resign and (then) appear before CBI," BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said.
Meanwhile, in Srinagar, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, "The investigation has reached the door of the Prime Minister. Now he is saying he is ready to go to CBI.

"(But) CBI is under the PMO. Its administrative control is with PMO. His joint secretary changed the CBI status report.

"So, saying that he is ready to go to CBI is meaningless. Perhaps he is thinking that he will get a clean chit from the agency the same way that Pawan Bansal, Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav did."
Also, in Patna, another BJP spokesperson, Shahnawaz Hussain, said, "If you (Singh) are not tainted, if you feel you can answer the questions, then answer as the Coal Minister and as Manmohan Singh... Do not stick to the Prime Minister's chair.