“Weare ready for any debate. We can give satisfactory answers to all issues beingraised”, said the prime minister of eight years’ standing to the reportersafter Parliament was adjourned for the day without conducting any business onAugust 21, the first day of sitting after the damning CAG reports on coal,power and Delhi airport were tabled. The opposition had disrupted proceedingsdemanding his resignation and the reporters were anxious to get the prime minister’scomment.
Thatcomment aptly and sufficiently describes the political skullduggery on displaynot only over this clutch of CAG reports but for the past three years since theCAG started exposing government’s underhand dealings in Commonwealth Games, 2Gspectrum and Antrix-Devas deals and many others. What are essentially theissues of corruption and crony capitalism have turned into a “debate”, a verbalduel with the opposition and the CAG. All the “satisfactory answers” are aimedat them. Answerability to people or fixing responsibility and accountabilityfor the sins of commission and omission be damned.
Theprime minister’s (and indeed that of his government and party) script shows afamiliar trend. He himself may not have given answers to the reporters that hespoke about, his minions did. V Narayanasamy, MoS in PMO, said, “CAG is notfollowing its mandate. The report has not been tested by Parliament. The PACwill examine it, then we will see what view emerges”. Sriprakash Jaiswal, thecoal minister, said CAG calculations are “faulty” because save for one, rest ofthe coal blocks were “not operative”. Former law minister, now holding powerportfolio, M Veerappa Moily said, “It (CAG reports) is not a final finding. Itwill go before PAC and Parliament”. Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said CAG“has the habit of adding zeros and he should resist it”. That was a referenceto the CAG’s calculations that by not auctioning the coal blocks, a selectedfew private companies received a windfall gain of Rs 1.86 lakh crore (andearlier, CAG’s estimate that public exchequer was deprived of Rs 1.76 lakhcrore in 2G spectrum allocations).
Thesewere aimed at the CAG. It is worth pointing out here that the CAG reports havenot found fault with the government’s policies, rather the way “policy has beenimplemented”, as a CAG official has correctly pointed out, in all its audits.The prime minister’s earlier comment (in connection with 2G scam) that the CAGhad transgressed into the government’s domain by commenting on policies is notonly invalid, amounts to misrepresentation of facts too. We will soon see whyNarayanasamy and Moily hold so much in store by the PAC finally examining theCAG reports.
Nowthe answers to the opposition parties.
KapilSibal, telecom and HRD minister, pointed out that auctioning of coal blocks didnot start in 2004 but in 1993 and continued through the opposition-ruledregimes “ mainly the BJP-led NDA regime. And when the PM wanted auctioning in2004, Sibal said the opposition-ruled states of Chhattisgarh (BJP), Jharkhand(BJP), Madhya Pradesh (BJP), Odisha (BJD) and West Bengal (earlier one of LeftFront) opposed it.
Sowhat happens when the opposition is tired out through repeated adjournments of Parliamentand the exchange of charges and counter-charges? There will be debates in boththe Houses which will predictably lead to nowhere. Past debates over CWG and 2Gare clear indications of that.
Inthe meanwhile, the CAG reports will be referred to the Public Accounts Committee(PAC), as is the normal procedures. Again, nothing much will come out of it.Take the CAG report on 2G spectrum allocations. The PAC headed by BJP’s MurliManohar Joshi could not finalise its report. Since Joshi insisted on naming theprime minister among those found guilty, the ruling party members protested,refused to endorse his draft and then held a separate meeting to “reject” it.Joshi stuck to his stand and sent his draft to the speaker of Lok Sabha inearly 2011. The speaker returned the draft because it had not been adopted bythe committee and so, couldn’t constitute its report. Joshi, in his next termas PAC chairman, tried throughout the latter part of 2011 to get his draftadopted by the reconstituted PAC. Again there was resistance. Finally, in April2012, Joshi sent the same draft to the speaker with whom it is pending now.
Ajoint parliamentary committee (JPC) was also constituted in February 2011because the opposition was not satisfied with just the PAC examining the CAGreport. The matter is still being heard with no sign of coming to a conclusionany time soon.
ThePAC also took up CAG’s report on CWG. It is still being debated there. The CAGhad first exposed the scam in organizing the Commonwealth Games way back in2009.
Somuch for Parliament to hold the government accountable. Is it then difficult toforesee the fate of latest CAG reports in Parliament and understand why Narayanasamyand Moily have so much faith in Parliamentary procedures?
Itisn’t as if only the prime minister, his ministers or party are to be blamedfor this deplorable situation. The opposition parties are equally to be blamed.In the slugfest, the government has successfully cornered the opposition bypointing their role in perpetuating the very same corruption and cronycapitalism.
Whenthe JPC was constituted to go into the 2G spectrum allocations, its terms ofreference included examining the telecom policies being pursued since 1998 whenthe BJP-led NDA was in government. A similar term can now be included when coalblock allocations to private players are taken up, as Sibal and others havealready hinted at. Additionally, the role of opposition-ruled states inopposing auctioning can also be included in the agenda. How effective will theopposition be then to put the government on the mat?
Willwe then see anyone accountability being fixed?
Everythingdepends on the court of law. After all, it was the court of law that hauled upthe government and its agencies leading to the arrest and prosecution of theaccused in the case of 2G and CWG. High-profile politicians, A Raja, the thentelecom minister, and Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the CWG organizing committee,are now out on bail but the judicial process continues.
