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One of the controversial decisions made by the UPA government is becoming headache to the congress leaders. In the same issue the CBI Special Court had summoned the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh quoting an accused tag, it also asked him to appear before it on April 8.

The CBI Special Court issued the same kind of notices to Industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former coal secretary PC Parakh and three others. At the time of coal blocks allocation, the ministry of coal was with Manmohan Singh only, while the ministry of state was held by Dasari Narayana Rao.

Letters by Birla dated May 7, 2005 and June 17, 2005 to him requesting for allocation of Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco, are the possible grounds of accusing.

Reacting to the summons, Singh said, "I am open to legal scrutiny. I am upset with summon but it is part of life," and added that he had not seen the order and would reply after consulting his lawyers.

Congress leader Manish Tiwari defended the Manmohan Singh, "Congress has faced these challenges in the past and we will be vindicated in the final analysis".

BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said that when UPA was in power, every effort was made to stall investigations in to the coal scam. But their government will not intervene in the enquiry and investigation.

-Kannamsai