leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday questioned the rationale behind lodging of FIR against noted industrialist KM Birla and former Coal secretary PC Parakh while leaving out Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who took the final decision on allotment of coal blocks.
Jaitley claimed FIR against the industrialist and former bureaucrat sends a “very, very adverse” signal that investors and civil servants will face investigation for irregularities, while the “competent authority” in the case, the Prime Minister who held the coal portfolio, “will go scot-free”.
“Successive corruption scandals like the spectrum and coal blocks allocation were adding to the disillusionment (of people) towards the UPA Government,” Jaitley said in New York.
The leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha said it defied logic that a secretary to the Government who recommends a coal block should be made an accused in an FIR filed by the CBI but the Minister who sanctions the blocks should be out of it. “The competent authority was the Minister, the Minister in this case happened to be the Prime Minister,” he said.
Jaitley described Birla as “one of the doyens of the industry” and Parakh as “an honest civil servant” who as a “dissenter” in the coal block allocation had recommended auction of coal. Jaitley added that the treatment meted out to Parakh is a warning to bureaucrats that “even the most honest civil servants will be investigated.” “This sends a very bad signal to investment. If honest civil servants are going to be squeezed to save the politicians, bureaucrats will stop making honest recommendations,” he said.
Similalry, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray slammed the CBI for registering an FIR against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla in the Coalgate and questioned the CBI for not probing the Prime Minister.
“The CBI has strangulated the economy of the country by filing an FIR against Birla. What
ever is happening in the coal scam these days appears as a medicine worst than the ailment itself. This will kill the economy that is already on a death bed,” he wrote in the editorial of party’s mouthpiece Saamana.
Thackeray also said that an FIR should be filed against the entire Cabinet and Manmohan Singh should be charged as the key conspirator. He also attacked Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law saying, “Robert Vadra, whose fortunes grew from 5 crores to 5,000 crores in just 5 years, gets a clean chit while the likes of Tata and Birla who take care of the country’s economy are made to appear like criminals”.
CPM smells rat in Sharma’s defence of ‘big industrialist’
CPI(M) Politburo on Friday blamed Union Minister Anand Sharma for defending Kumar Mangalam Birla and said this was an attempt to intimidate CBI officials. The party also said that the role of Prime Minister should also be investigated in the allotment of coal blocks to Hindalco headed by Birla.
In a statement, CPI(M) said these attempts of Ministers like Anand Sharma exposes the covert policy of UPA Government and demanded that all the corporate, which gained windfall should be probed by CBI.
“It is shocking that a Union Minister, Anand Sharma, has come out in defence of a big industrialist claiming he is innocent in the case. This is nothing but a blatant effort to influence the case and intimidate the CBI. This stand is also to justify the covert policy of privatising the coal industry which is the root cause for the corruption involved,” said CPI(M).
“The CPI(M) has been demanding a thorough investigation in this case of allocating natural resources illegally to ensure windfall profits to certain companies. Since this involved the period when the Prime Minister was in charge of the Ministry of Coal, this aspect also needs investigation,” said the party, urging for a free and fair probe.