Top BJP leaders skip PM’s lunch
Angry over the CBI’s summons to Gujarat’s minister of state for home Amit Shah, who happens to be chief minister Narendra Modi’s close aide, senior BJP leaders on Friday turned down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s invitation to lunch, saying they were doing so as the “environment was not cordial”. The main Opposition party also accused the government of “misusing the CBI for political gain”.
Reacting to this, the Congress accused the BJP of attempting to subvert Supreme Court-ordered investigations. The CBI had summoned Mr Shah over his role in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter.
The Prime Minister had invited BJP parliamentary party chief L.K. Advani, the Leaders of the Opposition in both Houses Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, and party president Nitin Gadkari for lunch ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning on Monday. But hours before the lunch was due, the BJP, which had earlier accepted the offer, refused to attend. Mr Advani, who was to go along with the other three leaders, called the Leader of the Lok Sabha, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, to express his inability to attend the lunch. The PMO was also intimated later.
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