With the Centre admitting that ‘something has gone wrong’ in allocation of coal blocks, the BJP on Thursday reiterated its demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who headed the Coal Ministry for a period in UPA-I.
The Opposition party tore into the PM saying coal blocks were allocated on the ‘basis of recommendations of the party’ and the allocation had been linked to the (Congress) Party’s fund-raising campaign.
“If in 2006 and 2007, the Prime Minister as a Coal Minister had followed the criteria of auctioning - something which he himself had decided in 2004, the coal scam would not have taken place. He allowed Congressmen to act as sweat equity beneficiaries and rentiers,” leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said.
Demanding that the coal block allotment be immediately cancelled, Jaitley said, “If this opportunity is not availed, the country stands to suffer in terms of delay in power generation. The Prime Minister and the Government continue to suffer from an image of indecisiveness and a taint of corruption”.
The BJP leader said PM’s culpability in the coal block allocation was higher since he himself was the Cabinet Minister and his choice of the Minister of State a suspect. Jaitley also rued that India, with a 200-year coal reserve, was importing it leading to a strain on foreign exchange reserves.
“Additionally, our goal of ‘power on demand’ has not been realised. Power generation has not become a success story. There was an opportunity for the Prime Minister to have refrained from making these allocations,” he said.
BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar claimed that the Attorney- General has confided in the Supreme Court that there were serious irregularities in the allotments. “The onus is now on the Prime Minister as he held the coal portfolio from 2006 to 2009 when the allocations were made. We reiterate that he should own up his responsibility and resign,” Javadekar said. He also sought to question CBI’s “silence” on action against two Ministers of State who held the coal portfolio and officials of PMO who dealt with the coal blocks allocations.
The BJP leader hoped the Supreme Court would give directions to probe the money trail and the beneficiaries of the scam to ensure justice is done. Alleging that coal blocks worth `50 lakh crore were given “virtually for free”, he said it meant that there were many partners in the scam.