By IANS,
New Delhi : Accusing yoga guru Baba Ramdev and Team Anna of a pro-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bias, the Congress Sunday rubbished allegations of wrongdoing by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the allocation of coal blocks in 2006-09.
Speaking to reporters after allegations were levelled against the prime minister from the venue of Ramdev’s protest here, Congress spokesperson Raashid Alvi said that the charges were “baseless”.
Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal said at the protest venue that coal block allocations were made to “underwear makers, cassette makers, gutka (tobacco) makers” when the prime minister was looking after the ministry.
Manmohan Singh held the coal portfolio from November 2006 to May 2009.
Rejecting the allegations, Alvi accused Baba Ramdev and Team Anna of being biased towards the BJP. He said names of leaders of several parties were taken in the context of corruption but none was from the BJP.
“They did not take the name of any BJP leader. Some (BJP leaders) stayed in jail. Their names were also not taken,” Alvi said.
According to the Comptroller and Auditor General, mining rights for coal blocks were allocated without auctioning them and this led to massive profits for chosen private firms.