CAG Reports: Opposition stalls House,tells PM to resign

Terming the demand for PM’s resignation “preposterous”,Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said: “Let them come for a discussion… They know there is nothing. Still they are trying to create a situation on an issue which is not there.”

The UPA is likely to firm up its strategy for Parliament at a Coordination Committee meeting Wednesday. Government sources said they were ready to take on the BJP as the latter was running away from a debate to avoid “exposure” of its “double-speak”. BJP governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh had opposed the auction route in coal blocks,they pointed out.

The NDA first forced adjournment of the Lok Sabha till noon on Tuesday and then for the day. The Rajya Sabha could function only to allow the election of P J Kurien as deputy chairman.

Deputy leader of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said they would continue to seek the PM’s resignation as coal allocation issue was not an isolated incident,listing 2G spectrum,Commonwealth Games and the public-private airport partnership issue. The UPA government is one of “scam,shame,scandals,corruption and loot”,Prasad said.

The BJP leader maintained that since Manmohan Singh had held the coal portfolio for five years after the UPA came to power in 2004,he was responsible for the loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore estimated by CAG. “If scams keep happening,we owe it to the people to demand the PM’s resignation,” said Prasad.

Asked why it was not agreeing to a debate on the coal allocation issue,the BJP argued that discussions had taken place in Parliament on the 2G spectrum issue and Commonwealth Games scams but nothing had come of them.