Summons to ex-PM Singh has Cong 'scared and worried': BJP

Taking potshots at Congress over the march led by its leaders to express solidarity with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP today said it was an attempt by them to save their skins as they are afraid that their role in the coal scam would now be exposed.

Saying that it will be the "last nail in the coffin of Congress", BJP also hoped that Singh would now reveal what pressure he was under when coal blocks were "arbitrarily" allocated by the previous UPA government.

"Today's march is a 'Congress-bachao' march. Congress president Sonia Gandhi led it to save herself. A scared and worried Congress party is standing at (Singh's) door out of fear that the truth will be out now.

"Everyone knows that Congress's first family was behind corruption. Allegations that corruption emanated during the Congress regime from the highest level will be proved once the truth comes out. Congress is trying to politicise the issue for its own political relevance," said BJP national secretary, Shrikant Sharma.

"What was the pressure on former PM Singh. People of the country will expect that at least now he will come out with the truth as to under whose pressure he was functioning," he said.
Sharma said that if only the Congress chief had extended her support to Singh in 2004, the party would not have suffered such "bure din" (bad days) as it is facing today.

The entire top Congress leadership, including Gandhi, today took to the streets to express solidarity with Singh, who has been summoned as an accused in a coal scam case.

Gandhi, who has described the summons to Singh as being "outrageous", met leaders at the party headquarters early this morning and led a march to the former prime minister's residence about half-a-kilometre away in the heart of the national capital.

Several of Singh's former Cabinet colleagues, P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Ambika Soni and Veerappa Moily joined Gandhi for the march.

Congress leaders have also attacked the government over the issue, accusing it of maintaining a "studied silence" after CBI had told the court that there was no criminality involved in the allocation of Talabira coal block II to Aditya Birla group company Hindalco in Odisha in 2005, when Singh was also holding the coal portfolio.

The Congress chief has declared that they will fight the case with all legal and other means at their command.