New Delhi:
There was chaos in Parliament today as the BJP demanded that the Prime Minister should resign for his government's alleged attempt to influence the CBI's report on its investigation into how coal fields were allotted. Both Houses were repeatedly adjourned.
"We will demand the PM's resignation for interfering with CBI's coal report and dragging NDA and former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee into the 2G scam," BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi said. "Let them ask", said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, dismissing the opposition's demand.
Sources have told NDTV that on Friday, the CBI will admit in writing that Law Minister Ashwani Kumar previewed and altered the document before it was submitted last month by the agency to the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the probe into "Coal-Gate." The CBI will emphasize that the minister made changes to the language of the report, but did not water down its findings.
The opposition has also accused the government of using a parliamentary inquiry into the telecom or 2G scam to absolve the Prime Minister of any responsibility. The BJP and the Left had asked that both the PM and former Telecom Minister A Raja should testify for the Joint Parliamentary Committee or JPC which consists of 20 law-makers from different parties. Mr Raja, accused of engineering the scam, has repeatedly urged that he be allowed to appear at the panel. The Prime Minister said he would not do so unless he is summoned by the committee's chairman, Congressman PC Chacko, who has said that will not happen.
Mr Raja submitted a detailed statement to the committee yesterday, reiterating that he kept the PM and Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the loop over the decisions that are now seen as the cornerstone of a large swindle that saw ineligible companies grabbing hugely profitable deals for mobile network licenses and frequency.