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Paying for silence
Paying for silence.The saga has its genesis with Hindalco applying for two coal blocks Talabira II, in Odisha in 2005.
Political Delhi continues to suffer from the Rs 1.86 lakh crores Coalgate gripes that saw coal mining rights being assigned without transparency to private firms. Whereby, a fresh blast of coal dust hit the Congress and stunned former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with him being accused for illegal allocation of a coal block to Kumar Mangalam Birla’s Hindalco at the coat of a public sector company. Leaving the Sonia’s Party walking on hot coal suspended over a deep pit!
The saga has its genesis with Hindalco applying for two coal blocks Talabira II, in Odisha in 2005.His application is rejected by the coal screening Committee headed by then Coal Secretary Parakh as the blocks were earmarked for public sector Neyveli Lignite Corp. But two letters to Coal Minister Manmohan Singh and meeting Parakh later, the Coal Secretary overturned his ‘considered’ decision rejecting Hindalco’s proposal and allots the blocks to the private company.
In his 75-page order, CBI judge Parashar has indicted Singh for criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust by a public servant “for taking extra undue interest and a conscious effort to somehow accommodate the Birla firm resulting in a windfall for the firm and huge loss to the country.” Indictments attract a maximum sentence of 10 years. The former Prime Minister has to appear in court on 8 April.
Besides, the ex-Prime Minister can't bank on CBI support when he approaches the Supreme Court to challenge the trial judge's order, notwithstanding the agency's report seeking closure of the case on the fallacious plea that there was no material evidence to prosecute anyone in the alleged irregular allotment of the coalmines.
Ironically, Manmohan Singh now has the dubious distinction of being the second former Prime Minister to be made accused and likely to be charge sheeted. He follows in the footsteps of his “political guru” and a predecessor Narasimha Rao, the first Prime Minister to be accused and convicted for corruption in the JMM Bribery case in 2000.Either which way, the smash-up of Manmohan Singh’s pristine clean image has been damaged beyond repair.
True, none doubt his personal honesty, but what good is that integrity when he turned a blind eye to the innumerable corrupt deeds of Ministerial colleagues and coalition partners caught with their hand in the till. Justifying every scam, as “compulsions of coalition politics.” Sic. Specially, against the backdrop that not only was he heading the Coal Ministry for some time when the scam happened but also because most of the 142 coal fields allocated between 2004 and 2009 were given at undervalued rates instead of using the auction route to favoured private parties who instead of extracting coal sat tight, thereby causing the national exchequer a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crores!More damning, ex-Coal Secretary P C Parakh said that he had informed Singh about the potential fraud inherent in the discretionary allocation of the captive coal fields and objected to it in writing in 20004.
Still all the coal blocks were allocated without auction. Reportedly, the modus operandi was simple: Favoured private firms first negotiated a price with the High Command, paid up and then mines allotted to them allegedly on the recommendation of Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel. The scandal came to light in 2012 when the CAG questioned the government's practice of awarding coal mining blocks at a concession to companies without competitive bidding resulting in this mindboggling loss. This bombshell paralyzed Parliament with the BJP demanding his resignation.
Making matters worse for Singh, the NDA government has already garnered over Rs 2 lakh crores from 31 coal blocks auctioned this year. This also underscores the CAG’s estimates of loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the national exchequer during Singh’s tenure as correct. For the Congress the timing couldn’t have been worse especially post its disastrous wipe-out in the Delhi Assembly polls and down to a mere 44 MPs in Lok Sabha. Today, the party is caught between a rock and hard place as the buck stops with Singh and through him Sonia’s door.
By Poonam I Kaushish
