Sonia GandhiNEW DELHI — Congress President Sonia Gandhi Tuesday led from the front to counter the allegations leveled by the opposition on the coal blocks allocation issue, and hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging that blackmailing had become the ‘bread and butter' of the main opposition party. Addressing the general body meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party on coal blocks allocation here, Gandhi said that the BJP was mocking the people of India. Stating that the opposition party had scant respect for parliament, Sonia Gandhi said that the government was ready for discussions over the issue. “We need to fight the intemperate criticism and negative politics of BJP. They are holding parliament to ransom," she added. Gandhi, while interacting with a group of party leaders last week, had signaled to partymen to be on the offensive against BJP, which has been sticking to its demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Meanwhile, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal held a special briefing for party MPs and union ministers on the issue late Monday, as part of Congress' plans to counter the opposition on the issue. Chidambaram said the government never talked about “zero loss" in allocation of coal blocks and complained of “incorrect reporting" by the media of his remarks on the issue. “None of us used the phrase ‘zero loss'. Nevertheless, a section of the press has incorrectly reported that government claimed that there was zero loss in the allocation of coal blocks," he said. Chidambaram was referring to the media-briefing jointly addressed by him, Minister of Law and Justice Salman Khurshid and Jaiswal last week. “In fact, what I said was, if coal is not mined, if coal remains buried in Mother Earth, where is the loss," he said. The logjam in parliament continued with BJP members stridently demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Singh on the issue of coal block allocation. The BJP has held the prime minister, who then held direct charge of the coal ministry, responsible for the notional loss by the CAG in coal block allocations, and demanded his resignation. The CAG report on coal block allocations states that nearly 150 coalfields were allotted to private and state-run firms without transparency and objectivity between 2005 and 2009. — Agencies
