Cong dubs BJP's demand for PM resignation unjustified

Rejecting as "unjustified" and "fancy" Bharatiya Janata Party's renewed demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation over coal block allocation scam, Congress Saturday launched a counter attack at the opposition party reminding it of its drubbing in Karnataka assembly polls.

The Congress was responding to senior BJP leader L K Advani's remarks that now there is no logic in the prime minister's continuance. "Having decided to drop the law minister who was protecting the prime minister, then the consequences should follow. The consequence is that the prime minister must resign now," according to Advani.

Dismissing the demand, Union Minister Manish Tewari said, "The logical culmination of the people's verdict in Karnataka should be a serious, sustained and sober introspection of the BJP's policies, politics and philosophy over the past nine years."

Seeking to turn the tables on BJP over its charge of delay in resignations of Union ministers Ashwani Kumar and P K Bansal, Congress spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das asked, "How many months BJP had taken to decide over fate of its former president Nitin Gadkari, former Karanataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, when their resignations were sought after corruption charges."

"BJP has nothing else to do except demanding resignations," he added.

Another party spokesperson Sandip Dikshit said there is no question of the prime minister's resignation and that it is "one of those fancy demands of the BJP. It is totally unjustified and uncalled for".

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid also dismissed the demand and said, “This is a reason why people in political life refuse to do what is morally the right thing to do because it is not taken in right perspective. You see it as a sign of weakness."

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh, while describing the resignations of the two Union ministers as "appropriate", took a dig at BJP saying "this has never been the character of the BJP."

Photograph: Arko Datta/Reuters