Blackmailing is BJP's bread and butter, says Sonia; staple diet of Congress is kickbacks, says Jaitley
The Congress and the BJP continued sniping at each other on Tuesday, as Parliament lost yet another working day to disruptions and adjournments over the CAG’s report on coal block allotments.
Leading her party from the front, Congress president Sonia Gandhi described the repeated stalling of Parliament as a “matter of shame and regret.” This is “the handiwork of just one party, the BJP.”
She asked her party MPs to aggressively fight the BJP, saying “blackmailing has become the bread and butter” of the party. “We have nothing to be defensive about. Let us stand up and fight, fight with a sense of purpose and fight aggressively.”
BJP’s Arun Jaitley hit back with equal ferocity. “A government whose integrity has been painted black in the coal deals cannot be blackmailed. The staple diet of the Congress ever since [the] Bofors [scandal] has been kickbacks and commissions.”
Ms. Gandhi, who was addressing a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party, charged the BJP with political motives in targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “The Prime Minister has laid a detailed statement [in Parliament]. That statement is clear, comprehensive and cogent. It completely exposes the BJP and its false propaganda.”
She asserted that the government and the Prime Minister were ready to discuss the CAG report, but the right forum for the discussion was Parliament, which was held to ransom by the BJP. Ms. Gandhi’s aggression found immediate reflection in the Congress, with Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pawan Kumar Bansal accusing the BJP of being fascist in trying to impose its will on a majority government that had the people’s mandate. “The BJP has refused to follow parliamentary procedures. Now, the Leader of the Opposition is openly saying the BJP is happy to be in magnificent isolation. This is a diabolical design to subvert the democratic system. It is a sign of fascism.”
Meanwhile, at the BJP’s daily press briefing, spokesperson Prakash Javadekar produced documents to show that of the 70 coal blocks allocated between 2006 and 2009 to various companies for specific uses, not one had gone into production. He said he got the documents as part of a reply to an unstarred question he posed in the Rajya Sabha. He wanted to know why the government was in a hurry to bypass competitive bidding when the truth was that “till today, there has been no production in any of the… blocks.” Mr. Javadekar alleged that the Manmohan Singh government had distributed 17 billion tonnes of coal reserves worth Rs. 51 lakh crore for free. “This is nothing but chori [thieving].”
He produced a February 5, 2008 letter written by the then Minister of State, Subodh Kant Sahai, to the Prime Minister, seeking allotment of two coal blocks to a company. The Prime Minister’s Office immediately forwarded the letter to the Coal Secretary for “action as appropriate,” he said. “What is more, the company was given the allotment the very next day. This is a shocking instance of how arbitrary and mala fide the allocations were.”
Keywords: coalgate scam, coal block allocation, Parliament session, coal auction, coal block auction, coal block, Sonia reaction, BJP
Dear Madam,
You should first fight against corruption, then against BJP. Then only people will have trust in congress. It is very unfortunate for a leader like you to defend all the corruption charges against your govt. It started from common wealth, then 2G now coal gate. It is clear that some of the ministers of your cabinet has been found guilty. It would be better on your part to first cleanup your party and thus fight against others. If you clean up your party, you don't have to worry about success in next election, success will follow you.
..and we all continue to enjoy the bollywood masala, cricketing days.
Politicians are not fooling us, we are fooling ourseleves and our children's future.!
ever since congress took majority, right from commonwealth games, the
wireless 3G spectrum to the coal gate, it is very clear this
government is nothing but making money to fill the pockets of their
ministers... it has been never about the country and people. this has
to end!!!
IT is not like BJP is any better. They are just jealous they didn't
get part of the mota mal (deal) and Congress got a lot of money.
When will India improve? ONLY if the people of India come together as
a whole to re-elect and throw BJP congress etc ... The prime minister
and president should be chosen by the people and not by the party
anymore. we need more independent candidates...
She is calling to fight against some what independent CAG, so that it
will become dependent!. And to fight down already weak Opposition, so
that there will be no opposition.
The government should take the resposibility of coalgate scam. Mrs.
Sonia Gandhi being the president of congress party, should direct PM to cancel the allocated coal block linces. Even if BJP is has its own share in scam in the states where BJP is in power, Congress and central government cannot run away from the responsibility of the coalgate scam.So instead of fighting with opposition Mrs. Sonia Gandhi should take the measure to cancel the fraudulent coal block allocation and fresh bidding should start. This will alleviate the the damage caused to the public exchequer and restore the public faith in government. After all its better late than never.
UPA Government wants the discussion on parliament, so that the blame
game could be started, and yet again escape from another blunder
Inspite of the fact, that PM Dr Manmohan Singh has accepted the
actions of his ministry as his own responsibility,
Congress Leaders seem to have the audacity to stand up and fight ,
even after the people have seen them naked and ugly in their acts of
mammoth corruption.
Nonetheless, BJP is opportunistic as well. BJP's leadership is shaken
from the time it had lost it's mandate.
It has been struggling internally.
Unable to understand Sonia's out burst. Is the CAG a Government
Agency or a Private Agency? If it is a Government Agency, then why
would they find fault with the Government? And this is not the first
time a CAG has done so. First it was 2G and then it was the
commonwealth games and now it is coalgate. There is something
drastically wrong either with the CAG or with the Government.
Nevertheless, this Government is probably the most inefficient and
corrupt Government the Country has ever experienced. Take a look at
the cost of food, alarming inflation, daylight robbery in the name of
education, dividing the Country in the name of religion and caste and
less said the better about housing. These are not biased opinions but
are axiomatic facts. We do need a change of Government.
What other option does Sonia have ? The truth must be prevented from coming out and she is doing just that . But hardly does she realise - "truth is like the sun, u can hide it behind clouds , but it will emerge in a while ".
good that she is ready to stand and fight the BJP but how many times she has done the same to fight corruption.
It would be wise if you stand-up and fight against corruption rather
than at opposition.
Why every scam becomes clash between parties.Its should be taken by
ruling party as introspection and opposition to produce better
suggestions and solutions.In India positive work is produced by non
political constitutional organisations like CAG , Supreme court of
india.Thats why people starts taking politics as a bad game.
But why is Sonia Gandhi silent on countless scams during this UPA
regime and the size of each scam is monumentally high? Instead of
blaming the main opposition party for holding parliament to ransom
let her bring changes in leadership since she claims to be the most
powerful woman in this country.Much introspection is needed among the
congress top brass before they venture out to face the electorate
before 2014.
Even 1% of this outrage is directed to bringing some form of governance will help. It is so
hypocritical of the Congress leader that her party's failure is shown as a result of BJP is
obstructionist ways. Both these parties have perfected this in a fine art form. The losers are
the common people of India
Its common man who is the fool. We pay tax and we chose these
politicians ans then wait for them to utilise our money to do good for
us. Instead, they loot all the money and give all sorts of explanations.
Let them loot, but they can atleast utilise 50% of the tax payers cash
for developing India.
She has to investigate not castigate. the coalgate is not a small
amount. I wonder if there were pressures to reduce the amount to 1.86
lakh crores compared to the figure of 10.86 lakh crores. If Manmohan
singh can, he can challenge the CAG figures. but he should know that
every time he disputes figures, he is undermining a constitutional
authority. Like Parliament CAG also needs to be respected. CAG does not
print audit reports to please Sonia and her party.
Fine. Holding the Parliament to ransom is BJP's habit while holding the
nation to ransom is Congress's culture.
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