Asserting that the government has been fully cooperating with the probe in coal scam case, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Wednesday said an 'irresponsible' Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) needs to restrain its utterances on a matter which is under investigation and being monitored by the Supreme Court of India directly.
"The entire matter is under investigation and an investigation that is being monitored by the Supreme Court of India directly. So, therefore, in a sub-judice matter where investigations are in progress, it is inappropriate for people to be commenting in the manner in which they have done. And if at all, they have something to say; at the appropriate fora, at the appropriate time, they would have their say," said Tewari.
"Suffice to say that government has been fully cooperating with the investigation, the government has provided all documents to the investigator. So, therefore, this unnecessary speculation and this tilting at windmills is something which needs to be avoided," he added.
To a poser on whether former Union Coal Secretary Prakash Chandra Parakh's remarks that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh should be held equally responsible in the coal scam case
has given an ammunition to the Bharatiya Janata Party, Tewari said the main opposition party is a self-propelled and a self-firing automatic weapon which is unfortunately full of blanks.
"So, therefore, to expect anything else from the Bharatiya Janata Party expect irresponsibility would be expecting the sun to rise from the west rather than the east. So, therefore, I don't think it is important as to what the BJP has to say because all that they have been doing is saying for the last ten years. But responsibility and propriety demands that in an investigation which is being monitored by the apex court, people need to be restrained in their utterances," said Tewari.
"And in so far the government is concerned, the government has been absolutely cooperative with the entire investigation process," he added.
The former Union Coal Secretary earlier today said if the CBI considers a conspiracy in this case then the Prime Minister should be held equally responsible being the final decision maker.
Parakh, who has been named in the latest chargesheet filed by the CBI along with industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and his company, said there is absolutely nothing wrong in the decision.
"So, to my mind I don't know why the CBI has thought that there is a controversy. But of it is a conspiracy then there are different members to this conspiracy. Mr. Birla, who made a representation, is one conspirant; I who examined the case and made a recommendation, I can be another conspirant; and the Prime Minister as Coal Minister who took the decision is the third conspirant. So, if CBI thinks that there is a conspiracy then why did they chose and select Mr. Birla and me and why not PM?" asked Parakh
"If there is a conspiracy then we all three are conspirants and he is the final decision maker," he added, while talking to ANI in Hyderabad.
The 1969-batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, who was appointed Union Coal Secretary in March 2004 and remained in that post till he retired in December 2005, said it is for the CBI to answer as to why they have included him in the FIR.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier in the day said the Prime Minister should take the final responsibility for the coal scam as the coal blocks allocation took place with his signature.
Reacting to Parakhs's remarks, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar described the coal scam to be a monumental corruption
"I don't know the full details of what the role of the Coal Secretary in that particular case or what he has said in detail. But the fact remains that coal scam is a monumental corruption and that time the Coal Minister was the Prime Minister. And so every coal allotment has happened with his signature and, therefore, he has to take the final responsibility. That is why we said that he has to quit, but he has not done so," Javadekar told ANI.
The CBI yesterday filed FIRs against Kumar Mangalam Birla and Parakh for alleged irregularities and criminal conspiracy in allocation of two coal blocks in Orissa in 2005.
The CBI, which has now filed 14 FIRs in this case, carried out coordinated searches at offices of the Aditya Birla group in Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar yesterday.
The BJP has held the Prime Minister responsible and demanded his resignation for an estimated loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crores to the national exchequer by the CAG in connection with the coal block allocation.
The CAG report does not indict the Prime Minister or his office, but the BJP is emphasizing that the Prime Minister held direct charge of the coal ministry for the years under scrutiny.
