Stepping up pressure on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign over alleged coal scam, the BJP on Sunday accused that somebody in PMO was “certainly guiding the course of events” that finally led to law minister Ashwani Kumar’s exit from the Union Cabinet.
Launching a frontal attack on the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley said the BJP saw a “massive cover-up exercise” that led to Mr Kumar’s resignation and adverse comments from the Supreme Court.
“Somebody in the PMO was certainly guiding the course of events which have taken place,” Mr Jaitley told a TV channel in a programme.
“It would be safe to presume that Indian civil servants are trained to be conventional and conservative. They are not adventurist. They don’t do these kinds of things all by themselves unless they have a brief to do a particular act. Therefore, it would be safe to presume... that they obviously acted under some guidance or instruction,” the BJP leader said.
Asked if his party would stick to the demand for Dr Singh’s resignation, Mr Jaitley said, “We will continue to flag this issue seriously. Today you have a massive cover-up exercise because of which the law minister had to resign. Because of the cover-up exercise, you had the Supreme Court giving serious comments and strictures.”
On reports that a top PMO official was briefed about the law minister’s meeting with CBI on the coal issue, the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha said, “It obviously appears the coal ministry and the PMO were seriously concerned with what was the content of the status report. And, therefore the status report must be tailored to their convenience and now you have evidence available as to what four changes were made in them.”
The BJP leader said, “The Prime Minister or the PMO, either of them, was certainly concerned and very seriously concerned that the status report must not carry anything embarrassing and, therefore, these extra initiatives were taken...”