Paswan Kumar Bansal's resignation 'too late', Govt wasted Parliament session: BJP

NEW DELHI: BJP today said the resignation of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal is a step taken "too late" and charged the government with "wasting" the precious time of Parliament by not agreeing to its demand.

The opposition party hoped that the probe into the railway bribery scam will now go in the right direction and truth will come out.

"This is a step taken too late. Had the government agreed to the BJP demand earlier, they could have saved precious time of Parliament," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told PTI.

He said the resignation has been delayed "deliberately" and claimed that the minister had no right to stay in his position.

"BJP leader Sushma Swaraj had made the demand that if the two ministers (Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Bansal) resign, Parliament can function normally. They have wasted the precious time of Parliament by not agreeing to our demand. The BJP now expects that the probe into the railway scam will go in the right direction," Hussain said.

Noting that the resignation has came much late, BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "the kingdom of loot is now on fire" and "neither the looters nor their protectors will be saved".

He said the anger of people has now been converted into hatred and they will teach a lesson to the "corrupt" in the coming elections. He hoped that instead of putting an abrupt end to the Parliament session, government should have put an end to corruption and those involved in it.

Hussain said the party will not remain silent and will keep raising the issue of railway bribery as well as that of the Law Minister's alleged interference in CBI functioning.

Launching an offensive against Ashwani Kumar, Hussain said, "The nation wants to know whom was the Law Minister protecting by changing the CBI draft report."

He said party President Rajnath Singh will announce the party's future offensive against the UPA tomorrow.