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This is an archive article published on September 2, 2012

Coal blocks: House logjam set to continue,BJP blames UPA silence

Sushma says has not heard from Sonia on way to let House run,guns for PM again.

With the last week of the Monsoon Session of Parliament resuming from Monday,the BJP put the blame on the ruling establishment for the continuing logjam in the House,underlining that while it had made an offer to break the impasse,the government had not come forward to accept the same.

The NDA has offered to resolve the deadlock if all the allotments made were cancelled and the process whereby the screening committee decided these allocations was subjected to a judicial probe, NDA acting chairman L K Advani wrote in his blog. The government is not yet prepared for this.

Similar sentiments were echoed by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj,who pointed out that Sonia Gandhi had not got back to her on the BJPs offer to allow the Parliament to function.

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I told Soniaji that coal block allocations be cancelled and an independent and fair probe ordered. If you agree to both these demands,then we can start the discussion and Parliament can function, Swaraj said in Mumbai on Sunday.

Swaraj said a CBI inquiry was not sufficient. We do not want a CBI inquiry. It cannot conduct an independent probe against the Congress, she said,seeking an independent inquiry by a Supreme Court judge.

Swaraj also specified that the above two conditions were merely for allowing Parliament to function and hold a discussion,and that the BJP was not giving up its demand that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resign.

We stick to our demand that the Prime Minister should resign accepting moral responsibility, she said,adding that the party would hit the streets on the matter after the Parliament session ends on September 7.

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Advani termed Singhs explanation over the coal block allocation issue as totally unconvincing. I was intrigued to find that federalism,rightly described by our Supreme Court as one of the basic features of the Constitution and so one which cannot be amended by Parliament,was sought to be blamed by the Prime Minister in his totally unconvincing explanation, Advani wrote in his blog,pointing to the PM citing reservations supposed to have been voiced by BJP chief ministers against the competitive bidding route.

Advani sought to draw a parallel with the reasoning used to justify the Emergency,saying Indira Gandhi had told German journalists that the decision had been taken by chief ministers.

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