Not satisfied with the resignations of P.K. Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, the BJP on Sunday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
It said the changes in the CBI status report in the Coalgate submitted to the Supreme Court were made to save Singh’s skin.
“The Prime Minister is the primary beneficiary of manipulation in the CBI status report by the then Law Minister (Ashwani Kumar), PMO officials and others and he must resign in the backdrop of the resignation of his Law Minister,” BJP national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters.
Rudy claimed that there was “clinching evidence” that the former Law Minister and PMO officials among others had “manipulated” the CBI status report which was submitted to the Supreme Court and now that the then Law Minister had quit his post, the Prime Minister too should follow suit and go.
Rudy also charged the UPA government with using the resignations of Bansal and Kumar as a ‘cushion’ to protect the Prime Minister from the charges of corruption in the Coalgate and said that the incumbent government’s tactics to delay securing resignations of its two Ministers was primarily aimed at deflecting the Opposition’s demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation.
If the Prime Minister continued to stay in his office despite expose of his role in the Coalgate, then the BJP will carry out a nationwide agitation to press for his resignation, he said.