New Delhi: The Prime Minister has refuted the allegations that on
his watch, the country lost thousands of crores because his government
did not auction coal fields, a conclusion reached by the national
auditor in a report earlier this month which has led the opposition BJP
to demand his resignation.With the BJP's shouts making it impossible for him to be heard in Parliament today, Dr Manmohan Singh's office took to Twitter to share his official statement.
Using the relative calm outside the House, the PM made a brief statement for reporters. He described as "disputable" the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General that has pivoted a huge new political controversy. Dr Singh added, "I appeal to the opposition to come back to the House and debate the issue."
Known for his penchant for Urdu couplets, the PM said, "My general practice is not to respond to motivated criticism directed at me. My philosophy has been 'hazaaron jawaabon se achchi hai meri khaamoshi (my silence is better than a thousand answers). But in this case, I wanted to respond and wasn't allowed to."
The BJP scoffed at his response with senior party leader Sushma Swaraj saying that "the questions were so pointed that the PM would have been embarrassed in answering them. That is why he chose to remain silent." The party now has to decide whether it will continue to paralyse Parliament - no business was transacted all of last week - a stand that's leaving it isolated. At a meeting this afternoon, its allies have agreed to a discussion on the coal controversy tomorrow, when Dr Manmohan Singh leaves for an official visit to Iran. "We do not stand alone. But on this issue even if we have to stand alone, it would be a majestic isolation," Arun Jaitley, who addressed reporters alongwith Ms Swaraj, said.
The BJP had warned this morning that it would not cooperate with the PM's attempt to rebut charges that while he was Coal Minister, private firms between 2004 and 2009 benefitted by upto Rs. 1.86 lakh crore because coal fields were sold to them at under-valued prices instead of being auctioned. "As the minister in charge, I take full responsibility for the decisions of the ministry. I wish to say that any allegations of impropriety are without basis and unsupported by the facts," declares the PM's lengthy statement.
Accusing the PM of "making excuses and hiding facts", the BJP said that the only valid point in his statement was the fact that he took full responsibility for the decisions of the coal ministry. "PM and Congress party are equally responsible. They wanted the competitive bidding to be implemented only after the blocks were allocated. All these arguments - power, revenues etc. - the haste was just because the Congress wanted to add to its coffers. It's the biggest case of corruption till date," Ms Swaraj said.
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) did not indict the Prime Minister but said that the government missed opportunities to introduce an auction to assign coal blocks. The PM's defense collates the different arguments made by several senior ministers last week. He claims that when assigning coal fields, his government followed policies that had been in place since 1993; when he tried to change them, state governments, many of them governed by the BJP, forcefully objected.
The CAG report says that a screening committee that included representatives of state governments did not have transparent records of how firms were chosen. "There were then no allegations of impropriety in the functioning of the Committee," the PM's statement shares.
Dr Singh also states that at the time, industry needed coal quickly and that legislative changes required to amend the existing laws and guidelines to provide for an auction would have hurt the country's needs. So, at a meeting in July 25, he said, the consensus was "to continue with the allocation of coal blocks through the extant Screening Committee procedure till the new competitive bidding procedure became operational. This was a collective decision of the Centre and the state governments concerned."
(With inputs from Agencies)
