Sunday ET: BJP to step up demand for PM’s resignation: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday stepped up its attack on the UPA and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, rubbishing the government’s zero-loss theory on coal blocks allocation and asking political parties to take a call on which side they want to be in the battle against corruption.

Indicating that the party would persist with its demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation and not agree to a debate in Parliament, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said there were occasions when disruption in Parliament brought “greater benefits” to the nation. “The issue is being debated everywhere though not in Parliament. Our strategy does not permit that we allow the government to use Parliament to end this debate without any accountability. We want the debate to go on further,” he said at a press conference in Delhi.

Accusing the government of “misleading” the people by saying that if the coal was not mined there was no question of gain or loss, he added, “Instead of accepting its blunder, such a fragile logic was being given. Is this the logic for which they want a debate?” To a question about whether other opposition parties agreed to the BJP’s strategy in Parliament, he said, “On such monumental corruption all parties will have to take a stand on which side they are.”

He said the Centre had lost a “huge opportunity cost” and that the blocks government could have mined were now with private companies. “When coal blocks are allocated, the right to mine rests with the private allottees, not Government of India. Even without actual mining, the government has lost control over those mines at a throw-away price,” he said.