BJP takes potshots at UPA govt for probing coal blocks allotment

Taking a potshot at UPA government for probing coal blocks allotment between 1993 and 2004, BJP on Tuesday said past events like the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose should also be investigated.

"If the Centre has interest in probing coal blocks allotment by the past governments between 1993 and 2004, then it should also probe the myterious disappearance of Bose in 1945, Sino-India war in 1962 and death of the ex-prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966," BJP national spokesman Syed Shahanwaz Hussain said at a function here to mark Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyay's 96th birth anniversary.

"All these events and many more are worth investigating if the UPA government wants to," he said.

Hussain assailed the UPA government for its alleged involvement in a slew of scams and said that policy decisions like FDI in multi-brand retail were taken to divert attention of the people from corruption issues.

"However, a lioness from West Bengal mustered courage and pulled the rug from under the UPA's feet and left it gasping for breath by withdrawing support to the scam tainted government at the centre," Hussain said referring to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

Banerjee, he said, has shown courage and conviction to oppose the Centre's policies tooth and nail. "No amount of praise for her is adequate."

Hussain also castigated Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for providing the "much needed oxygen" to the UPA government in the "apparent belief" that he will emerge as a viable prime ministerial candidate in the next elections.

Hussain attacked Yadav for describing BJP as a "communal" force and said if it was so he (Hussain) would not have become a union minister in the NDA government at 32 years of age nor would A P J Abdul Kalam would have become the president of the country.