New Delhi: After the Prime Minister said that allegations that
his government rang up losses of thousands of crores by mishandling the
allocation of coal fields, the BJP rejected his defense and said it will
not yield on its demand for his resignation.The Prime Minister leaves for Iran tomorrow for a four-day trip. His ministers denied reports that he will seek a trust vote when he returns to prove his government still enjoys a majority in Parliament. "This government enjoys the confidence of people and Parliament, there is no reason for us to seek a vote of confidence," said Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
In the morning, as the PM tried to address parliament, he was shouted out by the BJP; his office then posted on Twitter a detailed statement that was also tabled in Parliament. "I wish to say that any allegations of impropriety are without basis and unsupported by the facts," the statement said, challenging the national auditor whose report states that private firms gained windfall benefits of upto Rs. 1.86 lakh crore because coal fields were not auctioned, and were given away at under-valued rates.
The BJP said it rejects his defense. Senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj said that the Congress party had benefitted financially from the companies that were assigned coal fields, and that the allocations of 142 coal blocks must be cancelled immediately. "Iss allotment mein Congress party ko mota maal mila hai (the Congress has earned big bucks by allowing this allotment)," Ms Swaraj said.
Since last week, the BJP has not allowed parliament to function, demanding that till the PM resigns, it is not prepared to hear his government's stand on the coal report by the Comptroller and Auditor General. It is not yet clear whether, amid differences from its key allies, the BJP will stick to this strategy for the rest of the session, which ends on September 7. "We are not isolated," said Mr Jaitley, responding to reports that its partners like the Akalis and Nitish Kumar want to participate in a debate on the coal scam. "But if we are, what a magnificent isolation," he added. Like the PM, the Finance Minister urged the BJP to dissect the allegations and the PM's statement in parliament. "Every day that elected representatives don't meet and debate in parliament is a slap on the face of the people who elected us," Mr Chidambaram said.
Dr Manmohan Singh said today that as the minister in charge at the time in question he would take full responsibility for the decision not to switch the government's method of allocating coal fields to an auction system sooner. He also said that he followed the policies introduced and implemented by previous non-Congress governments. As expected, Dr Singh pointed out that, at a meeting in 2005, different state governments - some of them governed by the BJP - had objected to switching to a competitive bidding process. Amending legal and administrative processes, he said, would have caused inordinate delays for an industry hungry for coal at a time when the economy was surging.
"It was the UPA 1 government which, for the first time, conceived the idea of making allocations through the competitive bidding route in June 2004," he said in his statement.
The last time coal blocks were allocated under the old system was in 2008. New legislation means that in future allocations will be made by competitive bidding, though the modalities of the process are still being worked out.
While the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) did not indict the Prime Minister's Office in its report, it said that the screening committee that decided who would get coal fields followed a system that lacked transparency. The PM denied this in his statement today.
(With inputs from Agencies)
