PM should explain his and PMO's role in coal, 2G scams: CPI(M)

CPI(M) today hit out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for "presiding over a very corrupt regime" and demanded that he should explain his and PMO's role in the coal and 2G scams.
"The Prime Minister is presiding over a very corrupt regime and his image has been tarnished. We are waiting to hear from the Prime Minister. He has to come out and explain his role and that of his office in both the coal block allocation case and in the 2G spectrum matter," party General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters here.
Maintaining that the Prime Minister "cannot escape responsibility for these affairs", he said Singh had "directly looked after" the Coal Ministry and a Joint Secretary in PMO was involved in discussions to change the CBI status report on the coal issue to the Supreme Court.

"We hope he will eventually come out and tell us what really happened," Karat said.
Asked why CPI(M) was not demanding the Prime Minister's resignation, he said the CBI investigation was still on and "that is why the CBI investigation report is significant. Questions are being raised ... So let him explain. We want him to come clean and tell us what happened."
He slammed Congress for the "belated forced resignations" of P K Bansal and Ashwani Kumar as Union Ministers, saying this "exposes the hypocrisy of Congress and the government, which blamed the opposition for disrupting Parliament proceedings since the wrong-doings of the Ministers became known."

"Both Congress and the government are jointly responsible for delaying this decision which led to disruption of the House," Karat said.
On Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, he said following the latest evidence in the Zakia Jafri case relating to the 2002 communal pogrom, "fresh charges should be framed against him and he should not continue in the top post."
"It is crystal clear from Zakia Jafri's evidence that the police was prevented from acting against the rioters despite several reports about preparations for imminent attacks (against minorities)," Karat said.