PM must quit for alleged role in Coalgate : BJP

The BJP today mounted pressure on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign from his post owning responsibility for the role of the PMO officials in tampering of the CBI draft report on the Coalgate ahead of its submission to the Supreme Court, "The PM must take responsibility for the role of the PMO officials in tampering of the CBI draft report on the Coalgate prior to submission to the apex court as it is crystal clear that these officials were trying to save the skin of their master," the BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahanwaz Hussain told reporters.

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Apparently referring to some Congress leaders' remarks that the resignations of Bansal and Kumar were taken at the behest of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Hussain asked Gandhi to tell the nation as to when the PM would step down for his alleged role in tampering of the CBI status report.

"There cannot be two yardsticks - one for the minister and another for the PM.....now that the then Law Minister has resigned owning moral responsibility for his role as well as that of the law officers in tampering of the CBI report on the Coalgate, the PM is also bound to go on the same principles," he said.

The senior BJP leader also sought to justify agitational course undertaken by his party to force the PM to demit his office on the Coalgate issue and said that the agitation, including one outside the PM's residence in New Delhi yesterday, would go on till the latter quit his office. "The BJP has decided to pursue its demand for the PM's resignation from Parliament to streets and it will undertake nationwide 'Jail Bharo Abhiyan' on the issue between May 17 to June two next," Hussain said.