The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has charged the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre with shielding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his alleged role in the coal scam by forcing former Union law Minister Ashwini Kumar to quit.
Talking to media persons here on Friday, former Union Minister and BJP national spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said "everybody knows why Ashwini Kumar had resigned and made amendments in the CBI report. It was just to protect the Prime Minister, since he was looking after the coal portfolio at that time."
The BJP has demanded the resignation of Prime Minister on the issue and it would launch a 'jail bharo' campaign from May 27 to June 2 across the country to expose him.
At the time of the scam, the Coal ministry was headed by the Prime Minister and therefore, it was his moral responsibility to resign from his post. He alleged that the ruling UPA always blamed the BJP for stalling the Parliament, but this was not true since the BJP was only pressing for the resignation of then Union Railway Minister Pavan Kumar Bansal and Union law Minister Ashwini Kumar for their deeds.
Had they resigned during the session, the House could have functioned smoothly, but the Congress never wanted the Parliament session to complete, he alleged.