“But the image of the scrupulously honourable, humbleand intellectual technocrat has slowly given way to a completely different one:a dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corruptgovernment.”
It will be difficult to disagree with this assessmentof Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by the US daily, Washington Post, in itsarticle of September 5 headlined, “India’s ‘silent’ prime minister becomes atragic figure”.
As the CAG reports have showed in case of both the 2Gand coal block allocation scams, it was indeed the prime minister’s ditheringand ineffectual style of functioning that allowed the unscrupulous elements tocommit the scams. He knew what was cooking all along but didn’t or wouldn’tprevent. The very same approach has now led to the daily adjournment ofparliament for the third week in running, with the opposition parties demandinghis resignation.
The BJP did climb down when UPA chairperson SoniaGandhi called up the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, onAugust 31 to find a way out of the parliamentary logjam. The BJP dropped thedemand for PM’s resignation and instead demanded cancellation of the coalblocks and an independent inquiry to let parliament function. The PM refused toconcede the demand and now, the BJP has turned around to say that dropping thedemand for his resignation was only meant for allowing parliament to function.They are not giving up that demand.
The legitimacy of the BJP and other oppositionparties’ demands for cancellation of coal block allocations and independentinquiry into the issue is evident from the CBI’s first sets of FIRs filedagainst five companies which received six coal blocks. The FIRs allegedcriminal conspiracy, cheating and misrepresentation of facts against thosecompanies, names a Congress MP, Vijay Darda, and several influential people inthis connection. More than 20 companies are under the CBI scanner. There is acurious case of a Hyderabad-based company with a capital of Rs 1,00,000 gettinga captive coal block allotted. The company is then sold off to a bigger entity.Even outside of CBI’s probe, it has come to notice that union minister SubodhKant Sahai lobbied with the prime minister for coal block allocation to aprivate company and that company got a coal block a couple of days later.
Now, the CBI is under the direct administrativecontrol of the PM, who also happened to be the minister in-charge of coalministry when a bulk of the tainted allocations was made. Can an agency workingunder the PM do justice to the job when his own role is questionable? That isthe precise point the opposition has been making.
The PM did something quite extraordinary. After makinga statement in parliament on the CAG’s findings on August 27, which said theauditor’s report was “flawed” and “clearly disputable”, he made that famousobservation about keeping silent, “Hazararon jawabon se acchi hai merikhamoshi…”
When the PM repeated the same and refused to resignwhile on board his special aircraft on his way home from Teheran a few dayslater, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley aptly responded to him saying, “Thegovernment has not given any response to the series of allegations (over) coalallocation. The prime minister has invoked his right to silence. A right tosilence is available to an accused in court, it is not available to a primeminister”.
Indeed, going by the CBI’s FIRs, there is a lot forthe PM and his government to explain. Cancellation of coal blocks allotted tomany, through misrepresentation of facts, seem a very distinct possibility. Ashead of a democratically elected government, he is answerable to the people. Hejust can’t keep silent or obstruct instruments of fixing responsibility likeparliament or an independent probe. That would be dangerous for democracy.
