Despite the olive branch extended by the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] on resuming Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made it clear on Monday that there would be no blanket scrapping of coal blocks allocated to different government and private companies.
Singh, who has outrightly rejected the Comptroller and Auditor General's [CAG] report on coal block allocation, reportedly told his ministers that he would not sanction the cancellation of 142 coal blocks listed by the auditor for being sold at a fraction of their market value.
Addressing the media in Parliament, the finance minister P Chidambaram said that the decision to cancel the allocation of coal blocks would be taken by following a fair procedure. He said, 'The demand for cancellation of all 142 coal blocks allocated after 2004 is not founded on sound logic.... [The cancellation] cannot be done through diktats or arbitrary orders.' He took the fight to the BJP by saying, 'If coal policy is flawed then it has been flawed since 1993.' This date obviously includes the National Democratic Alliance [NDA] years as well. This attack seems to follow a pattern, as even in the 2G scam case, the government included telecom licenses granted under the NDA rule for parliamentary review.
An inter-ministerial group, constituted by the government to look into the issue, which met on Monday and deferred decision on cancelling the allocation of coal blocks for later this week. The panel proposed to hear the industry version in this time. But, industry sources said that this action is indicative of the government crackdown on certain private players.
Slamming the government's stand, the senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, '[The BJP's offer] also provided an opportunity to the government to provide its bona fide and fairness. The government, by rejecting the very idea of cancelling the coal block allocations, has conclusively demonstrated that it has a vested interest in continuing this arbitrary and discretionary allocation.'
'ACCOUNTABILITY AND SILENCE CANNOT COEXIST'
Though the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] had set the conditions of cancellation of coal blocks and an independent probe for the resumption of Parliament, the party attacked the prime minister for his silence on the matter.
'The Prime Minister has invoked his right to silence. A right to silence is available to an accused in a court, it is not available to a prime minister who is the holder of the most accountable office. Accountability and silence cannot co-exist,' said leader of opposition Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley.
The BJP leader added that if no answers are given by the prime minister then people can presume that no answers could be given by him. 'Dignity of prime minister's office will be protected and enhanced if he cancels these allotments to come out clean and not by refusing to answer questions,' said Jaitley. He added that stalemate will continue as the government has failed to respond to the allegations levelled by the opposition.
'The government, by rejecting the very idea of cancelling the coal block allocations, has conclusively demonstrated that it has a vested interest in continuing this arbitrary and discretionary allocation,' said Jaitley. The BJP leader alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI] inquiry into coal block allocation is nothing but a diversionary tactics by the government.
The BJP leaders, however, maintained there were no differences within the party over the question of resignation of the prime minister. 'There were two pre-conditions given for a debate in Parliament. This does not mean that the third issue of resignation of the Prime Minister has been given up. In the course of the debate in Parliament, if at all it had taken place, our MPs would have certainly demanded his resignation,' said Jaitley.
GOVT TO HANDLE COALGATE AFTER THIS SESSION
New Delhi: With the monsoon session nearing it's end soon, the Congress party is all set to unleash it's counter strategy from the very next day, and embark on a campaign to respond to the Opposition’s allegations on the coal scam. With a firm belief to attack the BJP on the issue of coal block allocation based on the CAG's report, Congress top leaders will be briefing people and the media across the country on it's stand. In a combative mood, the govt is all set to unleash it's counter strategy through a nation-wide campaign lead by key ministers and partymen. Highly-placed sources said that the party's top leaders which includes P Chidambaram, A K Antony, Kapil Sibal and Pawan Kumar Bansal along with Congress general secretaries and spokespersons, will visit several states across the country and hold media briefings.