The Parliament on Wednesday witnessed commotion over the issue of missing coal block allocations.
In the Lok Sabha, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj demanded that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh come clean by voluntarily deposing before the CBI over the matter. She also argued for immediate registration of an FIR over the missing files.
She said, “The Prime Minister is coming under cloud. If the Prime Minister wants to see himself come clean on this issue, he should himself come forward and offer to depose before the CBI.” Attacking the PM, Ms Swaraj said that all the controversial coal block allocation took place when Dr Singh held additional charge of the ministry between 2006 and 2009. she said, “Prime Minister is in the dock. He was the in-charge minister when controversial coal block allocations happened. When are you going to file FIR on missing files? It is a serious issue. There should not be any pressure on CBI.”
She also quoted media reports that said that a key official of the CBI has demanded that the PM has to be “examined.”
Dismissing the government’s contention that the files were missing, she said that they were stolen. “It is a matter of theft. That is why there should be an immediate FIR. Government should tell us by when an FIR will be lodged”, she said. Ms Swaraj also said that if the government did not come forward to register an FIR it would be construed that the government has something to hide. Listing out the scams that have taken place under the UPA watch like irregularities in the Commonwealth Games preparations and 2G allocation issue, she said that the coal scam was most important.