NEW DELHI: Even after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made an uncharacteristically strident statement, on his way back from Myanmar, that he would resign from public life if “an iota of truth” was found in the allegations levelled against him, Team Anna stuck to its gun. They said that the PM should agree to an independent probe into the coal block allocations, just to clear his name.
If on Tuesday it was Prashant Bhushan who repeated the charges against the PM on a live TV show, on Wednesday it was his prominent Team colleague, Arvind Kejriwal’s turn. “We have no grudges against the PM, we have the utmost respect for him…if the allegations against him are proved wrong, we will be happy,” Kejriwal said.
With the PM doing his own mid-air defence after two days of virtual silence from both the Government and the Congress party, the PMO could not sit quiet. It swung into action and issued a rebuttal to the allegations levelled by Team Anna. (Till now, it was more Team than Anna. Hazare joined tirade only today. He had initially objected to the language and the nature of allegations levelled against the PM.)
The four-page note mailed by the PMO this evening was a bit defensive though. It said: “The allocation of coal blocks was never looked upon as a potential source for generating revenue for the Central Government. The Government was committed to developing infrastructure and industry.”
It also tried to give a low-down on how the coal fields were allotted __ the policy imperatives. “The idea of making allocations through competitive bidding was mooted in 2004 and the Government initiated a proposal to amend the Coal Mines (nationalisation) Act in 2005,” the note said.
It took the next three years to convince different stake-holders, including the State governments of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Rajasthan and the Ministry of Power, to come on board. They were originally apprehensive that such a move would push up coal prices. While they were being persuaded, the allocation of coal fields could not be suspended __ investment was needed in the coal sector to ensure an adequate supply for a surging economy and to prevent higher imports. This is all in the PMO note.
True to its style, the PMO then goes on to emphasise that the process of allocation was handled by a Screening Committee; ads were placed by the Government to invite the maximum bids and to present equal opportunities to all interested players. In 2008, Parliament was presented with amended guidelines that focused on auctioning coal fields to the highest bidder.