The Congress on Thursday slammed the BJP for demanding resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over coal block allocation scam and said it was reflection of the frustration of a party whose agenda has been rejected by the voters. Several senior Congress leaders came out to defend the PM, who is in line of the Opposition fire after the exit of law Minister Ashwani Kumar.
The Congress leaders were obviously irked by senior BJP leader lK Advani’s caustic remarks that there was no logic in the Prime Minister’s continuance.
“Having decided to drop the law Minister who was protecting the Prime Minister, then the consequences should follow. The consequence is that the Prime Minister must resign now,” Advani said.
Rejecting the demand, Union Minister Manish Tewari said, “The logical culmination of the people’s verdict in Karnataka should be a serious, sustained and sober introspection of the BJP’s policies, politics and philosophy over the past nine years.”
Seeking to turn the tables on the BJP over its charge of delay in resignations of Union Ministers Ashwani Kumar and PK Bansal, party spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das asked, “How many months the BJP had taken to decide over fate of its former president Nitin Gadkari, former Karanataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, when their resignations were sought after corruption charges.”
“The BJP has nothing else to do except demanding resignations,” he added. Another party spokesperson Sandip Dikshit said there was no question of the Prime Minister’s resignation and that it is “one of those fancy demands of the BJP. It is totally unjustified and uncalled for”.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid also dismissed the demand and said, “This is a reason why people in political life refuse to do what is morally the right thing to do because it is not taken in right perspective. You see it as a sign of weakness.”
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, while describing the resignations of the two Union Ministers as “appropriate”, took a dig at the BJP saying “this has never been the character of the BJP”.