From the editor- in- chief
The exoneration of P. Chidambaram by the Supreme Court of any involvement in criminal conspiracy in the 2G scam on August 25 ought to have been a cause of celebration for Congress. The court’s judgment confirmed that the 2G scam buck stopped with the DMK’s former telecom minister A. Raja. Unfortunately for the Congress, the coal scam struck home the very same week after the tabling of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s ( CAG) audit report on the allocation of coal blocks between 2004 and 2009. In coal, there was neither an ally to blame, nor a dispensable Cabinet minister. Accountability lay directly at the doorstep of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who was also the Government’s coal minister for much of the period— with an exception between November 2004 and November 2006 when Shibu Soren was coal minister.
According to the CAG report, discretionary allocation of coal blocks by the Government to private sector companies for captive use in power and steel plants, completely free of charge, cost the exchequer Rs 1.86 lakh crore, a figure higher than the CAG’s Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss estimate in the 2G case. The CAG’s calculation of gain to private parties is the difference between the average sale price and the production cost of Coal India Limited, multiplied by the extractable reserves of the allocated coal blocks. In my opinion, this presumptive loss is too hypothetical. This is more a case of presumptive imagination than loss. The fact that none of the blocks, except one, has been mined till date makes it even worse. The real issue is a matter of policy. The Government’s inordinate delay in implementing the policy of auctions is what raises the maximum suspicion.
Ironically, it was the UPA which first proposed competitive bidding in 2004. It took almost eight years for the Government to put that proposal into action. In between, coal blocks were allocated on the discretion of a screening committee. There is evidence of firms with dubious antecedents receiving licences. A number of such licences were cancelled in 2010. But curiously, the Government did not penalise the companies that had provided fake information to get licences by not cashing their bank guarantees. There were several notes written by the Prime Minister’s Office, supported at times by the law ministry, power ministry and even state governments ruled by the Opposition, which offered reasons to delay auctions. There is the curious fact that it took the Government 17 months to notify the rules of the amended Mines Bill which permitted auctions— it was passed in September 2010 but rules were notified in February 2012.
It is this trail of suspicion that the Opposition, particularly the BJP, has pounced on to demand the Prime Minister’s resignation. It seems unreasonable to stall Parliament and not allow the Prime Minister to defend himself on the floor of the House. But the BJP sees this as the last straw on the camel’s back of a government that already has a serious credibility problem. The Prime Minister’s explanation, which was laid on the floor of the House, raises as many questions as it answers. Our cover story, written by Senior Editor Devesh Kumar, is an exhaustive analysis of the inconsistencies in the Prime Minister’s explanation. There are several things the Prime Minister still needs to answer before he can be exonerated and the best place to do that it is in Parliament.
Sadly, the BJP is not permitting that. Perhaps, they believe their case will not stand up to parliamentary debate. Clearly the smell of an imminent General Election and the possibility of victory have made political opportunism triumph over reason and democratic decorum. Yet again, the nation pays the price for the shenanigans of its politicians.