Keeping up heat on the UPA-II government by paralysing parliament for the second day on Wednesday demanding the prime minister's resignation over the "coalgate," the Bhartiya Janata Party now wants him to appear, along with finance minister P Chidambaram and his two key officials TKA Naik and Pulok Chatterjee, before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the 2G spectrum scam.

It also rejected the government's offer to talk out the alleged corruption in the allotment of the coal mines through discussion and then dissect the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) indictment of Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss in parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as the right forum.

Its leaders even threatened to resign from the JPC as they said its purpose will be defeated as it happened with the PAC if the PM and Chidambaram do not depose before it. They ask why should Manmohan Singh not be ready to depose before the JPC headed by a Congress MP while he had offered to appear before the PAC headed by BJP stalwart Murli Manohar Joshi even when not called.

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"The way they have scuttled the PAC report on 2G testifies this. And that is why we are not buying their argument to discuss and let us to go to PAC," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters after both the Houses were adjourned without transacting any business for the second day running.
He asserted: "We are not disturbing the Houses. The Congress regime is disrupting the country by looting the country. And that is why proceedings of the two Houses are disturbed. Congress has no honour or any respect for any Constitutional mechanism.

"What did you do with PAC in case of 2G? What are you doing on JPC on the issue of 2G? This is the Congress way of protecting corruption against which we are fighting. We are fighting for the people against the loot in this country," he added.

In the parliament house complex, Javadekar and Congress MP Girija Vyas had a verbal duel while trying to stress their viewpoints at the same time to the electronic media.

Notwithstanding the BJP baying for the PM's head for massive losses in allocation of the coal blocks to private parties, the CAG report it has been flaunting does not indict the prime minister or his office. The BJP insists that Manmohan Singh held the coal portfolio for the major period of the scam and hence he should resign.

There was slogan shouting in both the Houses right from the start, with the BJP-led NDA and Left members trooping into the Lok Sabha well, forcing their adjournment first up to 12 noon, then up to 2 pm and finally for the day as no peace emerged between the government and the Opposition. The BJP leaders indicated that the parliament impasse may not ease even in the remaining next two working days this week.

Both Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar offered to hear out the agitated members in "zero hour," but without any response except slogans of "Pradhan Mantri stifa do (PM resign)."

The government mobilised half a dozen ministers to go on offensive, condemning the BJP's disrespect to parliament by disrupting its proceedings and dubbing its allegations of corruption on the basis of the CAG reports as absolutely baseless.

"It is extremely unfortunate that the BJP is contemplating over not allowing parliament to function. We have repeatedly told that we are ready for discussion on any issue. Earlier, they used to say that the government is not ready for discussion, but now we have said that we are ready for discussion," said parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.

"It was up to the Opposition to decide if it wanted a democracy or a mobocracy. If they feel they have a point, let them debate it on the floor of parliament. The Congress is ready to match them point for point," said Congress spokesman Manish Tewari.