BJP demands PM resign over Coalgate

Panaji (PTI): BJP president Rajnath Singh on Saturday demanded the resignation of Prime MinisterManmohan Singh over the Coalgate scam in which the CBI's status report was vetted before being submitted to the Supreme Court. "When the Prime Minister himself is under suspicion...why was the CBI report in the Coalgate probe changed in former law Minister Ashwani Kumar's room?" BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, giving details of Singh's inaugural speech at the party National Executive meeting in Panaji. "After seeing the changes, the Supreme Court observed that the soul of the report has been changed. If after this observation, the Prime Minister still remains in his office, then it would be keeping aside morality. We demand that he (Singh) should immediately resign," he said. Ashwani Kumar had to resign from the post of Law Minister following revelations that he had vetted the CBI's status report on the coal blocks allocation case before it was submitted to the Supreme Court. Earlier, the BJP president had demanded that since the Prime Minister held the coal portfolio when the controversial block allocations were made, he should introspect on who should be held accountable. Javadekar said, "When there is political and economic crisis in the country after nine years of UPA rule, what is the need for these celebrations? You do not celebrate destructions." On the Congress' charge that BJP had disrupted the last Parliament session, Javadekar said the government was responsible for the whole situation as it had not met the opposition's demand for the resignations of then Union Ministers PK?Bansal and Ashwani Kumar. "We were only demanding the resignations of the Law Minister and the Railway Minister. They did not agree to our demands then, but later both of them had to resign. This could have done earlier too. So, it is the government which is responsible for this," he said.

BJP welcomes Sharif's election Welcoming election of Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister of Pakistan, BJP today said strengthening of democracy in the neighbouring country augurs well for India but it still views these developments with "cautious optimism" in view of past experience and "disoriented and ineffective" foreign policy of the UPA government. "BJP welcomes the victory of Nawaz Sharif in the recently held general elections in Pakistan. Democracy gaining strength in Pakistan guarantees peace in South Asia region," BJP president Rajnath Singh said in his inaugural address at the party's national executive meet here. "The Home Minister has made a statement that Pakistan's ISI was actively involved in misguiding Sikh youth to take up terrorist activities. If Pakistan wants to improve relations (with India) it should stop such activities immediately," Singh said.

'Rectify faults in Food Bill Draft' Insisting that it is not against the Food Security Bill, BJP today said Congress is making "baseless allegation" that the main opposition party is blocking the proposed law, even as it faulted the draft legislation on a "lot" of provisions. "The BJP is very serious on the issue of food security," Rajnath Singh said. At the same time, he said that in the proposed bill prepared by the government, "we see a lot of objectionable things". These were "no importance" given to the food producing farmers, "no guarantee of giving the farmer a minimum support price for his yield" and no factoring in of natural calamities such as drought, Singh said. He said Congress should "admit its mistake" that even after 50 years of one party rule, two-thirds of India is still deprived of food security.

'Congress misusing CBI' Panaji (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticised that the closure of a disproportionate assets case against Congress president Sonia Gandhi's former personal secretary Vincent George has proved that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)? is being used by the Congress party as a political tool. "The clean chit to Vincent George shows that the CBI is still being used as a political tool by the Congress," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters on the sidelines of the party's national executive meeting here on Saturday. The Central agency had earlier this week closed the 12-year-old disproportionate assets case against George, who was also the personal secretary to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Javadekar said that the Congress had already used the Bureau to give similar "clean chits" to its other leaders like Jagdish Tytleer, Sajjan Kumar and Captain Satish Sharma. "They know it is their last year in power. So they want to make sure that their leaders involved in such cases escape law," Javadekar said.

Uma apologises for absence BJP Vice-President Uma Bharti, who kept away from the national executive meet here citing ill-health, on Saturday wrote a letter to party chief Rajnath Singh apologising for embarrasment caused due to her absence and ensuring her full support to any decision taken at the conclave. In the letter written by her from Bhopal, Bharti said she is saddened by media reports which have "needlessly made me a part of the controversy". She was reported to be keeping away from the national executive to show her support to senior party leader L K Advani who has gone into a sulk over moves to appoint Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as head of the BJP's campaign committee for Lok Sabha polls.

Need for comprehensive anti-Naxal strategy Ahead of the all-party meet called by the government to discuss the naxal situation, BJP said it will serve no purpose unless a comprehensive strategy is devised to deal with the problem. The main opposition party alleged that naxalism had spread over the last nine years because of "Congress' encouragement to the Maoist ideology." "The all-party meeting has been called by the government on June 10. It will serve no purpose till a comprehensive strategy is unveiled to deal with the problem of naxalism," BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said. The meeting condoled the death of Congress leaders and security personnel killed last month in Bastar, he said.