Bribery case: Opposition slams govt, asks Bansal to quit

Hitting out at the government for the alleged involvement of the Railway Minister's nephew in a bribery case, opposition parties today demanded that Pawan Kumar Bansal step down on moral grounds.

BJP charged the government with shamelessly using constitutional bodies to hide their corruption. "One after another scam in which the Prime Minister and his ministerial colleagues are involved directly are coming out in the open. And the way this government is shamelessly using constitutional bodies to hide their corruption is coming to the fore one by one," said senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Bansal's nephew V Singla was yesterday arrested by the CBI, which also held a Member of the Railway Board in connection with alleged bribery of Rs.90 lakh for fixing a top level position in the government.

UPA ally Samajwadi Party even went on to demand the Railway Minister's resignation on moral grounds.

"The Prime Minister and Congress President Sonia Gandhi need to realise that it is the Railway Minister's nephew who has been arrested with Rs 90 lakh. Pawan Kumar Bansal should resign on moral grounds. Leaders, who are corrupt, should be suspended," said SP national general secretary Ram Asrey Kushwaha.

Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi said the incident was a "very sad" day for Indian Railways. "As far as this controversy is concerned, we have to wait till the truth comes out, but the fact is, its a very sad day for Indian railways and ...I think the PM must step in to clean up railways.

"When I was the minister, there was zero tolerance of such things. Bansal to my mind is a nice, clean person. I will be very disappointed and surprised ...so I don't want to jump to any conclusion. Let's wait till the details come out," he said.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O' Brien called the incident "retail bribery" as the scam had fewer zeores. "The first thing I want to say is the railways is a wonderful family. They have a few rotten apples. The first thing we need to do is not to brand the entire railway family as rotten apples.

"I would call it a retail bribery because these are fewer zeroes, what we normally hear are use to be it coalgate, 2G scam, these are fewer zeroes but its so shameful that these things are happening at all levels," he said.