Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday that former prime minister Manmohan Singh was paying for the "sin" committed by the Congress party after a Delhi court summoned him as accused in a coal block allocation case.
Special Judge Bharat Parashar also summoned industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former coal secretary P.C. Parakh and three others on April 8.
"It is a Congress' scam and because of the Congress' sin, Manmohan ji, the economist (former) prime minister has to face this," Javadekar told reporters.
"Congress is responsible for bringing former PM to this threshold," he added.
Calling it "yet another blot on the Congress", Javadekar said all political parties siding with Congress will now be forced to reconsider their stand.