2G scam: Congress dismisses BJP demand for PM's resignation

Congress today dismissed the BJP demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the second generation mobile telephony spectrum allocation scam, saying the opposition party was "sounding like stuck record which is devoid of any substance".

Reacting sharply to BJP's demand for the prime minister's resignation on moral grounds, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, "The Congress and the UPA government has acted even when there was perception of corruption, while BJP has always walked the extra mile to patronise the corrupt from Bangaru Laxman to Yeddyurappa."

In Lucknow, BJP chief spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad also accused the ruling Congress of engaging in "desperate" tactics to deviate people's attention from the issue of corruption.

Tewari reiterated the allegations that the BJP leaders had links with PR lobbyist and second generation mobile telephony spectrum allocation scam accused Nira Radia.

The Congress leader alleged that former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's foster son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya was the ominous shadow on the functioning of the "Vajpayee PMO".

"The BJP can not whitewash its links with Nira Radia as evident by the extensive conversations with Ranjan Bhattacharya who was the ominous shadow on the functioning of the Vajpayee PMO," Tewari said.

"I would like to ask the BJP who was the civil aviation minister who almost granted the commercial airline licence to a Nira Radia promoted company which had paid up capital of only Rs1 lakh," he added.