The government continued to face heat over “Coalgate” with a belligerent Opposition taking on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after he made a much-awaited statement on the missing files related to the scam in both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday. With the Opposition, particularly the BJP, appearing to be admanat on seeking clarifications and indicating it could stall proceedings, top BJP leaders were invited to a meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence late on Tuesday evening.
The crucial Land Acquisition Bill is expected to come up in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Sources said the Prime Minister told top BJP leaders that the coal issue could not be discussed at some length in Parliam-ent as it was sub judice. But he assured the BJP leaders, including L.K. Adavani and the Leaders of the Opposition in the two Houses, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, that the government will “go in for a thorough probe over the missing files”. The BJP plans to protest in Parliament on Wednesday over the Prime Minister’s refusal to take questions on his remarks in the Rajya Sabha on the missing coal files, and against the Lok Sabha Speaker not allowing Ms Swaraj to speak on the issue. It is learnt the party has not given any assurance to the PM on whether it will allow smooth running of Parliament on Wednesday. The BJP is likely to take a decision on Wednesday morning.
Things got somewhat tricky for the government as a letter written by attorney-general Goolam E. Vahanvati to the coal ministry got leaked. While the PM, in his statement, talked about the “so-called missing files”, the attorney-general’s letter addressed to the coal ministry clearly stated that the “issue of missing files needed to be looked at an urgent basis”. The letter was, incidentally, written on Monday, a day before the PM’s statement in Parliament.
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Dr Singh made it clear that the “government has nothing to hide”. Taking on the Opposition, the PM said “some members have drawn conclusions that there is something fishy and that the government is hiding (something)”. He added: “The fact that more than 1.5 lakh pages have been handed over to the CBI clearly shows that our intention to facilitate the investigation cannot be called into question.” The PM went on to read out: “The government will abide by the timeline set by the Supreme Court by handing over all files, and there should be no hasty conclusions.” The Supreme Court deadline ends on September 17.
The PM further said: “I would like to re-emphasise that the government is making all efforts to locate the files requisitioned by the CBI. At this stage, it would be premature to say that files are missing. A vast majority of the files have been handed over, and that is the factual position.”
The Prime Minister, who is leaving for the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday, left both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha immediately after reading out his statement. This upset the Opposition, which was on its feet immediately.
In the Lok Sabha, the BJP was furious that Speaker Meira Kumar did not allow Ms Swaraj to speak after Dr Singh made his statement. Even BJP parliamentary party chief L.K. Advani, who raised his hand seeking permission to speak, was ignored by the Chair. “All norms were broken in the Lok Sabha. The Leader of the Opposition was insulted when she was not permitted to speak. Her mike was muted. Even Advaniji, who rarely raises his hand to speak, was not allowed... Have you heard of any Parliament in the world where the Leader of the Opposition is not allowed to speak” BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain asked.
Attacking the PM, BJP Rajya Sabha deputy leader Ravishankar Prasad said that he (PM) was “evasive when asked if the missing files were about coal block allocations made from 2006 to 2009”. Mr Prasad went on to add: “When the Prime Minister, who is the head of the government, speaks, he is expected to address the issue... But Manmohan Singh went out of the House in a hurry after reading his statement.”
After the PM left without taking questions in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Jaitley lashed out saying that there had been an “attempt to mislead this House”. Mr Jaitley added: “It has every conceivable element of bad governance as it involves fraud, contempt of court, breach of privilege, conflict of interest and destruction of evidence.” Mr Jaitley went on: “There was a notion that the missing files won’t see the light of day as the names of imporant people were involved in alleged irregularities. Has the government registered any report, started booking the guilty or made any effort to retrieve the documents?”
Accusing the government of a “brazen coverup”, CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury said: “The PM offered virtually no explanation as to why the files went missing, who is responsible, which period these files pertain to and why no complaint or FIR was lodged for the missing files.”