In the wake of the Opposition offensive over the alleged coal block allocation scam, following a Comptroller and General (CAG) report pegging a notional Rs 1.86-lakh-crore loss, it seems, has reconciled to the fact that no business is likely to be transacted in Parliament this week. The government, however, hopes that by next week the House would resume with the BJP exhausting itself.
At the same time, with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coordination committee slated to meet tomorrow, the government is working towards getting all its allies on board over the issue. The government maintains that demands for resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was also in charge of the portfolio at the time, was “preposterous and baseless”, though the PM himself told television channels that he was ready for a statement or a discussion.
The CAG report on coal block allocations is the first crisis to engulf the government since Pranab Mukherjee moved to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mukherjee played a crucial rule in handling such crisis and reaching out to allies as well as the Opposition. Sushilkumar Shinde, who has now taken over as Leader of the Lok Sabha, was only heard appealing to the Opposition benches to allow for a discussion on the issue.
The Congress party and the UPA ministers made no overtures to the Opposition BJP, officially or behind the scenes.
Congress party managers, speaking to Business Standard, said, “The next few days are likely to be washed out, but by next week the BJP will have come around. It will have exhausted itself by then. We can then reach out to them and get the House functioning.”
Despite the BJP doing its best to embarrass the government and the PM by implicating him for the coal block allocation scam, the government, it appeared, had taken a stand to not be on the defensive, but to fight it out.
A Cabinet minister from a coalition party said, “The government is left with little choice, but to fight it out.”
Speaking to reporters, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said the Opposition’s demand was “preposterous and baseless”, and that BJP was “trying to make an issue out of nothing”. “Let them come for a discussion...It is not right on their part. They know that there is nothing. Still they are trying to create a situation over an issue which is not there.”
A string of UPA ministers went all out to accuse the BJP and BJP-led state governments of being tainted by the same deeds that they were accusing the UPA of. Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said the coal-bearing states of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress was not in power, had opposed allocation of coal mines to private firms through competitive bidding or auction.
Trashing the Opposition’s demand, Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary said, “They may want many things, but we are not willing to oblige...The question does not arise...We do not believe he (Singh) is in the dock. I am very certain he is not involved.” “They are spreading untruths and canards...Satyamave Jayate...The truth will triumph.”
With the BJP seeing an opportunity to get the prime minister on the mat, it is unlikely to give up its offensive easily at least for this week, even as the government works towards salvaging the rest of the Monsoon session of Parliament.
