Others who had coal portfolio should face CBI, why just PM, says Manish Tewari

All predecessors of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ministers who held the coal portfolio from 1993 should also be summoned by CBI, if he has to face the agency in Coalgate probe, Union Minister Manish Tewari said on Monday.

Asserting that Singh has an impeccable track record in the government and there has never been a question with regard to his integrity, he hit out at attempts "to politicise things in the ongoing investigations".

"If at all, this is being speculated, I would request keep this in mind that this should be a principle which should apply across the board," Tewari told reporters when asked at a function in New Delhi about Union Minister Kamal Nath's remark that the PM will make himself available to CBI in the Coalgate investigation if a formal request is made.

Tewari said if a conjecture is made with regard to the PM, "we must keep in mind that the coal allocation covers the entire period from 1993 to 2009 and during this period various other ministers, former prime ministers and leaders of other political parties have also held charge of the coal ministry".

At the outset, he said that the PM has extensively spoken inside and outside Parliament with regard to the government's transparency on the entire issue of coal block allocation.

"The PM has impeccable track record in the government. There has never ever been a question with regard to the integrity of the PM. It is most unfortunate an attempt has been made to politicise things in the ongoing investigations," he said.

Tewari's statement came two days after BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley accused the government of trying to sabotage the investigation into the missing coal block allocation files and sought to know why the Prime Minister is not being questioned and an FIR lodged on the "stolen" files.