Chidambaram leads attack after SC relief
25 Aug 2012 6:17 AM IST
In a new turn of events on Friday, the Congress got an advantage in the ongoing see-saw battle with the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]. The finance minister P Chidambaram, who was targeted by the opposition both inside the house and in legal battles, was cleared by the Supreme Court of any criminal intent or conspiracy in the 2G spectrum allotment case.
An emboldened Chidambaram, soon after the Scourt order, held a press conference at Shastri Bhawan in the afternoon and was flanked by the coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and the law minister Salman Khurshid. They collectively trashed the charges being levelled by the BJP against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coal block allotment case.
Chidambaram expressed disappointment that the opposition was not letting the house function and was unwilling to discuss the matter on the floor of the house. Attacking the opposition, the finance minister also held out a veiled threat, saying, 'If the prime minister is not allowed to make a statement in Parliament on Monday, the government will have to find a way how the prime minister can speak to the people. Today we are making a small attempt to speak to the people through the media.'
Specifically referring to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India [CAG] report on coal block allocations, he said that the prime minister was willing to make a statement and answer any question that would arise out of the statement. With reference to the CAG report on coal block allocation, Chidambaram said that the concept of a 'presumptive loss' was flawed. 'If coal is not mined, if coal remains buried in mother earth, where is the loss?' he asked.
Echoing similar sentiment Jaiswal slammed the Opposition for disrupting Parliament proceedings. Jaiswal alleged that it was the 'Opposition's ploy not to let the Parliament function is a conspiracy to malign the government and tarnish the image of a few clean and honest political leaders.'
Following the fourth day of the ruckus created by the BJP, both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha were adjourned till Monday. Earlier in the day, in a move to break the deadlock in Parliament over the coal block allocation, the law minister Salman Khurshid, the parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and the minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanswamy met the BJP leader Arun Jaitley. Bansal said, 'We are talking to them daily... We hope a solution will emerge soon.' Around the same time, the home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde met the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj for the second consecutive day to break the deadlock.
An emboldened Chidambaram, soon after the Scourt order, held a press conference at Shastri Bhawan in the afternoon and was flanked by the coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and the law minister Salman Khurshid. They collectively trashed the charges being levelled by the BJP against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coal block allotment case.
Chidambaram expressed disappointment that the opposition was not letting the house function and was unwilling to discuss the matter on the floor of the house. Attacking the opposition, the finance minister also held out a veiled threat, saying, 'If the prime minister is not allowed to make a statement in Parliament on Monday, the government will have to find a way how the prime minister can speak to the people. Today we are making a small attempt to speak to the people through the media.'
Specifically referring to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India [CAG] report on coal block allocations, he said that the prime minister was willing to make a statement and answer any question that would arise out of the statement. With reference to the CAG report on coal block allocation, Chidambaram said that the concept of a 'presumptive loss' was flawed. 'If coal is not mined, if coal remains buried in mother earth, where is the loss?' he asked.
Echoing similar sentiment Jaiswal slammed the Opposition for disrupting Parliament proceedings. Jaiswal alleged that it was the 'Opposition's ploy not to let the Parliament function is a conspiracy to malign the government and tarnish the image of a few clean and honest political leaders.'
Following the fourth day of the ruckus created by the BJP, both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha were adjourned till Monday. Earlier in the day, in a move to break the deadlock in Parliament over the coal block allocation, the law minister Salman Khurshid, the parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and the minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanswamy met the BJP leader Arun Jaitley. Bansal said, 'We are talking to them daily... We hope a solution will emerge soon.' Around the same time, the home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde met the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj for the second consecutive day to break the deadlock.
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