Will not let Parl function till Ashwani Kumar, Bansal quit: BJP

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it would not let parliament function till Railway Minister PK Bansal and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar step down. “When they will be removed from the council of ministers or resign, only then will we let parliament function and allow the food security bill and the land acquisition bill to be passed,” senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde told reporters here. [caption id=“attachment_758399” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Pawan Bansal. Agencies.[/caption] Earlier in the day, the party disrupted the Rajya Sabha as it pressed for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation over irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks and other issues. While Bansal’s nephew was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly taking a bribe for the appointment of a member of the Railway Board, Ashwani Kumar has come under attack in the Supreme Court for vetting the CBI report on coal allocation. BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said: “Till the Supreme Court conducts an independent inquiry, the truth will not come out.” “Court’s monitoring is important for every probe,” he added. A war of words broke out between the Congress and the opposition over the National Food Security Bill, which the government tried to debate in the Lok Sabha and get passed Monday. The opposition continued to disrupt the house over the coal blocks allocation issue as Food Minister KV Thomas moved the bill, saying it was a key UPA legislation that would give the right to subsidised grain to around 67 percent of the population. IANS