Sonia Gandhi owes an answer to the nation on books by Sanjaya Baru, P C Parakh: BJP

HYDERABAD: Alleging that Congress has denigrated the institution of the Prime Minister, BJP today said party president Sonia Gandhi owes an answer to the nation on the contents of the two books that talked about the issue.

"This week, two books have revealed the same story, that the PM was powerless or the PM is made powerless during UPA regime. The real power centre was 10, Janpath. From there, every decision was taken. The Prime Minister was just a rubber stamp Prime Minister. "So, both the books of Sanjaya Baru (former media adviser of PM Manmohan Singh and (PC) Parakh tell the same story and reaffirm our stand that the PM was in office but was not in power," BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told reporters here.

He alleged the "second observation" of Parakh (of former Coal Secretary) that CBI was doing a "superficial" investigation into coal block allocation is also true. "Soniaji wanted to be the PM. But she could not. Last minute, she appointed Manmohan Singh. That's why they wielded the power from behind the scenes," Javadekar said.

Many ministers did not listen to the advice of the Prime Minister "with the blessings of Soniaji", he claimed. The argument of Congress that the books have been sponsored by (BJP's prime ministerial nominee) Narendra Modi is "absolute rubbish" as both Sanjaya Baru and P C Parakh have a reputation and are known for their integrity, he said.

"Therefore, we ask, why is Soniaji silent? Sonia Gandhi owes an answer to the nation. Why this denigration of the institute of the Prime Minister?" he asked. The BJP spokesman also alleged all major allocation of coal blocks has a relationship with Congress. Asked about coal allocation during NDA rule, he said the allocations began in 1993 during P V Narasimha Rao rule and reasons were given till 2004. "Reasons were not given after 2004," he said.