The Comptroller and Auditor General report on coal block allocations disrupted Parliament on Tuesday with the entire Opposition demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who held the Coal portfolio when alleged irregularities took place.
The Lok Sabha could not transact any business as chaotic scenes began right from the start at 11 a.m. The first adjournment was announced within a few minutes after National Democratic Alliance members trooped into the well.
The Rajya Sabha functioned, only to elect Congress leader P.J. Kurien as Deputy Chairman unanimously before adjourning for the day amid uproar.
As soon as the Lok Sabha met, members of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal (United), Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena and Biju Janata Dal demanded Dr. Singh’s resignation. They were supported by the Left parties, AIADMK and TDP, following which Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the House till noon.
Tabled in Parliament on Friday, the CAG report has estimated a loss of Rs 1.86-lakh crore due to coal block allocations without auction from 2005 to 2009.
There was no let-up in the unruly scenes when the Lok Sabha met again. Opposition members trooped into the well and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde tried to placate them, saying the government was ready for a discussion on the report but to no avail.
Ms. Kumar said, “If the sense of the House is that there should be a discussion, we can discuss this issue.” When members continued to raise slogans, she adjourned the House for the day.
Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha. Almost the entire Opposition, led by BJP deputy leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, M. Venkaiah Naidu and Shivanand Tiwari (JD-U), raised slogans as soon as the House assembled.
While the NDA demanded that Dr. Singh resign, the Left parties wanted the government to spell out its stand on three CAG reports.
The Samajwadi Party, which supports the UPA government from outside, protested Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma’s comments on inflation. Chairman Hamid Ansari repeatedly appealed for calm but in vain. Later, he adjourned the House till noon. When the House met again, there was calm and the election of Mr. Kurien was taken up after which chaos prevailed again.
The government countered the attack with Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.K. Bansal and Ministers of State Rajeev Shukla and V. Narayanasamy saying the government was ready for a discussion but the Opposition was running away.
As the uproar continued, Mr. Kurien adjourned the House for the day.
Keywords: Coal block allocation, CAG report, Coalgate, coal scam, UPA government, Manmohan Singh, Coal Ministry, BJP
The soul of democatic functioning is accountability,transparency and owning moral responsibility. Judged by these standards,our democratic functioning is touching new lows. When scams of huge proportions,surface,the Govt. and their spokespersons,resort to
technicalities,niceties of law and other subtleties of procedure,to drown the sane voices of commonsense and reasoning.Result: Alienation from the groundswell of popular discontent and realities,with Media trying as best as it can to bridge the gap..We are the biggest democracy--quantitatively:yes
qualitatively:no
Its certainly the role of the opposition party to keep the ruling party in check and in balance. yet in our country the opposition party plays a role of just opposing without analysing the facts and does it its own interest. unless opposition party always stands up for the right cause its stand on right cause now and then will not get enough credentials from the public.
It is high time that the speaker in both houses could exercise their authority to expel or suspend members from the session for creating ruckus in the highest seat of democracy - parliament is for orderly discussion and if the speaker cannot enforce rules of the house, speaker must morally resign from the position stating unruly, unconstitutional behaviour of members who misuse the provision of immunity from prosecution in the court for what happens inside the house.
Rather than causing a ruckus and destroying parliamentary decorum and resulting in lakhs of crores of loss to the exchecker by non conduct of business - a norm adopted by the opposition parties to avoid debate in the parliament like a mature democracy, it is high time that members are charged with contempt and sentenced according to the rules of the house for making a mockery of our parliamentary democracy and the parties legally prevented from nominating such members ever again for re-election. High time!
@ Mani, Just because the CAG didn't report any "malpractice" doesn't mean that coal blocks were being allocated on a competitive bidding. The fact that MMS arrived on the scene on '04 to want to CHANGE the procedure to competitive bidding suggests that coal blocks were allocated on a
discretionary basis. The CAG could just as well have added the losses
corresponding to that and even before.
It may appear to be a "new" scam - it's not. It's what's happening
with all other minerals and resources - maybe except for oil and now
the 2-G spectrum.
@ D Mahapatra:
I'll emphasize on the point: We run a culture of discretionary
screening for allocation of resources. Instead of hypocritically
picking on MMS who could act out his ideas after seven years of
suggesting them just for the sake of opportunistic political rivalry,
it would make more sense for them all to realize they need to start
competitive bidding for other resources too.
It is a shameful event for Indian demoCRAZY! PM with minister Rajeev Shukla walks to the Dy Speaker's desk and asks him to adjourn the House becoz there could be loud protest by the opposition! And the Dy Speaker obeys at once!
Creating trouble in the Parliament and getting it adjourned is not
helping anybody. Don't think the people are all stupid and believe that
this sort of chaotic behavior shows Opposition in a good light. What we
need is a creative discussion on the issue. Let the facts come out. And
afterwards, if the PM is found guilty, demand his resignation. Don't
just make the Parliament stop everyday. We need important Bills to be
passed this season. Coal scam is not the only issue affecting India.
In a country like India, where half the nation struggles to feed and
clothe itself, repeated allegations of careless incompetence let alone
deliberate plunder, shake the foundations of democracy, society and
humanity.
In all the present ballyhoo, the Opposition Parties must not lose
sight of the BIG PICTURE. They should also look into ALL OTHER
ALLOCATIONS OF NATIONAL RESOURCES, (OR SOURCES OF REVENUE FOR THE
COUNTRY), to ensure that the govt has upheld the national interest,
followed/following processes that were/are prudent best-practice,
transparent, accountable and lawful. This must include all major areas
under current CAG examination, and areas of examination not yet
started.
The poor citizens are desperately short of elected Representatives who
still remember their Oath of Office!
Simple solutions, if evaded, produce complex problems. Time-honoured practice
demands that the Reports be referred to the Public Accounts Committee. Both the
Houses can convey their 'thirst' for the truth, to that Committee, by passing
unanimous resolutions. All other activities favour the untruth.
It is unfortunate that our money is wasted because parliament is being disrupted. At the same time our resources are looted by our government and donated to few. CAG is being condemned for doing a honest work by UPA. Our Prime Minister's honest is questionable now, as he leads the government of corrupt. What is the reason behind him of not acting on corrupt, either he is corrupt or black mailed. Either case needed to be investigated and it is high time that he leaves the office and face the investigation.
Thanks to the principal opposition party in India,it knows only onething
:"PM must resign" !CAG has submitted his "Performance Audit Reports" and
NOT the conventional "Audit reports of Union accounts"!It has been
caused to be placed before the Two houses of Parliament by President of
India as per Art.151 of the Constitution!Hence,the PAC Must study it and
then the MPs must have a debate on it!
Congress party was exposed long time back for their corrupt and illegal practice.They never wanted to discuss many serious problems in the parliament.Parliament has become a place of circus and jokers are making statement wanted to make evryone fool.Neo liberal policy of Manmohan Singh is connected with the domination over public life of the giant corportain.People intensified fight against this corrupt government.
I think PM can't go into hiding anymore. He has to take responsibility - I don't say moral responsibility because he was officially in-charge and its more then evidently clear that he was aware of all that was happening. Also, I guess INC can't hide behind 5 years of NDA in power in the past for all its wrong doing. Also, pointing fingers at others doesn't take away there sins.
I think it is not as bad as it is being pictured. may be this is the reason for the recent blackouts and the treasury missed 1.86 lakh crores, but there is one point that is being ignored.
In bellary mining scam,all those who owned the mines,sold off ores to those where the ore demand was high.unfortunately Indian companies din't have the capability(and were few in number)and hence they were sold of to the chinese at steal away prices.Now in this scam had some org. which got the coal but couldn't have used it, would have gradually sold it off to those who demand for it. why should an indian company buy resource of its own land at a higher price? even more, why should we, feed the enemy (competitior),with our food,starving oursleves,to overtake us? atleast this decision ensured that it was WE who used our own resources. the only loss is, the govt. enterprise din't gain from it, the public dint. gain much from it,but atleast they din't loose anything.and it kind of boosted industry.
We are certain about one thing: Dr. Singh has not been a beneficiary of this coal allotment scam. He is above board and an honorable man. At the same time we are all sure some of his ministerial colleagues and his political associates have swindled huge amounts of money.
The main problem here is that Dr. Singh is not boldly coming out and reveal who did these mischief . If he is not , then it tantamount to his involvement in this scam. It may be a very big lapse on his part to have allowed this much of potential loss for the country. In that case he should honorably accept his mistake. He is doing neither of this.
In the process, the real culprits who swindled so much of money have a gala time, with Dr.Singh protecting them literally. It is a sad state of affairs rocking the country.
@ Mr Tanmay Singal:
"The NDA didn't bother to change the existing allocation-procedure
from the discretionary basis to competitive bidding during ...98' to
2004. The Left parties didn't ... during ...96' to 98' when they were
part of a coalition." Indeed they must explain their logic. But, one
hopes you are not arguing that, no mistake even after it is known to
be wrong should ever be put right? Because, if you are, how can one
correct any mistake, in any sphere of life?
"[MMS] could just as well have kept shut and let the existing procedure go on the way it was." --- BUT HE DIDN'T --- he proposed change within weeks of taking charge of the dept, maybe because he is a learned economist --- and THAT IS TO HIS CREDIT! Two current
mysteries are (i) what changed his mind, and (ii) what pressures
caused the policy to be changed recently (an impending critical CAG
report?)?
@ Tanmay Singal: CAG did not report any malpratice on coal mines allocation during NDA or previous govt. It is this UPA govt, didnt act on a proposal to implement competitive bidding.
A power company was allocated a third coal mine with the justication that coals from the previously allocated two coal mines are not enough to run this company's unit. Then this UPA govt authorise the company to sell extra coals from these mines....
all opposition parties are responsible for it because case started form 2005, now they are awaken or waiting for such problem,making foolish to public, you all hampering the work of parliament it more loss to country, for such loss the salary of all this month should not be paid.
Though i dont support the congress,i felt quite happy that after
vajpayjee,dr.singh had become prime minister.atleast he had the
impeccable identity of being honest.
today i hang my head in shame with the PM that we have.he is a disgust
to the nation.in 2G scam he was indirectly involved.but in the
coalgate scam he had been the minister looking into the affairs.the
question that comes into the mind is whether he is under pressure to
allow anything corruptable to happen in the government.or is he
calling the shots.scam after scam after scam!!!h\when he speaks,he
looks like a devil now.he doesnt give an iota of
inspiration,leadership or confidence.he is a liability to the nation
nd morally,if he has any,he should resign.
Adjournment of the Parliament is the easiest way to escape from delivering anything. Almost 75% of the Parliament time is wasted in
adjournments & fruitless discussion. I feel it is really high time a
set of rules should be framed in such a way that the parliamentarians
should compensate the time lost by working extra time in fulfilling
all the required transaction to run the country.
Another thing MP's should remember is that they are letting the
Minister's off the hook by just asking for their resignation without
any accountability. Instead I feel the opposition should pin down the
Minister's & make them accountable.
1) Does the "No Work No Pay" rule applies to our honourable Parlimentarians? Lots of money and efforts involved in conducting the Parliament Sessions. Hope our elected leaders understand the importance of Parliament Sessions.
2) Secondly,why there is such a long delay in publishing certain reports by the CAG. Are they not responsible to publish the reports within a time frame?
Instead of disrupting Parliament proceedings, opposition parties should demand reversal of decisions which gave undue favours to any private sector consumers of coal. Citizens also want losses to be eliminated or brought down to the minimum and they are not interested in resignations of ministers. BJP appears to be more interested in deriving political benefits from coal scam. However, what is more important than PM’s resignation is the appointment of a permanent regulator for the Coal sector to ensure that supplies of coal to the power generation companies and other industries are not affected and also to curb profit making in coal allocations.
The NDA didn't bother to change the existing allocation-procedure from
the discretionary basis to competitive bidding during THEIR tenure
from 98' to 2004. The Left parties didn't bother to do the same during
96' to 98' when they were part of a coalition. I find it funny how
they are raging against MMS for the same. He could just as well have
kept shut and let the existing procedure go on the way it was. Also,
BJP led states and even the left in Bengal were against competitive
bidding. I don't get what's so particular about THIS scam that's
causing so much of uproar. Allocation based on discrete screening is a
CULTURE in this country. MMS should probably be applauded for being
the first to bring in competitive bidding, even if it has to be so
late.
Please Email the Editor