Thaindian News

Lucknow, June 3 (IANS) Terming the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) as “the most corrupt government since independence”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday charged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with “maintaining a conspiracy of silence” on the scams that surfaced during his regime.

“We believe Manmohan Singh presides over the most corrupt government since independence. Be it the 2G scam, the Commonwealth Games scam or the Antrix-Devas deal (linked to satellite related services)…Such scams cannot take place without the knowledge of the prime minister,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said at a press conference here.

He alleged that the prime minister was “directly involved” in what the BJP termed as the “black gold scam” or a coal scam involving Rs.85,000 crore.

“In 2006, the central government came up with a bill on allotment of coal blocks. As per the bill, the allotments were to be made only through auctioning. Ideally, before the bill was passed in parliament in 2010, the government should not have allotted the blocks. However, during the period (2006-2010) the government went on a spree of allotting coal blocks,” alleged Javadekar.

“It is significant to mention that during that period, after the resignation of the then coal minister Shibu Soren, it was Manmohan Singh who held the additional charge of coal minister. During the four years, 73 coal blocks were allotted to 143 private companies,” he said.

Javadekar said that neither the prime minister nor UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was interested in the black money issue.

“They (Manmohan Singh and Gandhi) have only made hollow declarations as far as the fight against corruption is concerned. We also want to know why Sonia Gandhi is silent over the corruption mess…She should respond on the issue,” demanded Javadekar.

“The prime minister has lost the moral right to continue in office, taking into account the plundering of national wealth by the UPA government,” he said.

Addressing party workers during the party’s national executive meeting, BJP president Nitin Gadkari also targeted the UPA government over corruption.

“The UPA leadership owes answers to the people as to how broad-daylight robberies, whether in the 2G scam or in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) preparations, were allowed to happen…Not even a child would believe that when A. Raja (former communications minister) and Suresh Kalmadi (former CWG Organising Committee chief) were indulging in corruption, the prime minister was simply unware of it,” said Gadkari.

“Instead of co-operating with (parliament’s) Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the UPA tried to put every possible obstacle in the process of inquiry. What happened in the PAC was politicisation of parliamentary procedures. Sadly, both the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party too supported the Congress and shaped a coalition of the corrupt,” added Gadkari.