The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh drop from the Cabinet, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal since both have charges of corruption against them. A Cabinet reshuffle is expected tomorrow.
The BJP has alleged Chidambaram to be directly responsible for deviating from earlier telecom policy to auction spectrum. Allegedly, Chidambaram had even suggested the prime minister treat 2G spectrum allocation as a closed chapter. The BJP has also held the home minister responsible for not keeping records of a crucial meeting with former telecom minister A Raja on May 29, 2008.
“A prime minister is known by the Cabinet ministers he appoints. The prime minister is honest but there are corruption allegations against some of the members in the council of ministers. Some of the union ministers are moving towards Tihar jail and some have already reached Tihar. We want P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal to be dropped from the Cabinet in this reshuffle,” said JP Nadda, the BJP general secretary and spokesperson.
The BJP leadership has already demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Sibal for allegedly reducing a penalty of Rs 650 crore on Reliance Communications, by acting against the recommendations of ministry officials. “The prime minister must remember that cosmetic surgery would not help since there is a need for deep surgery. The intension, integrity and working of the prime minister would also be seen during the Cabinet reshuffle this time,” Nadda added.
Blaming the Union government for being inefficient and playing with the lives of people, senior BJP leaders asked Manmohan Singh to take responsibility for the death of 68 people, killed in a train accident in Uttar Pradesh yesterday.
“It was a black Sunday for all of us. The accident was caused because of the inefficient UPA government led by the prime minister,” said Nadda.
