In the line of Opposition fire over the coal scam and amid reports of the CBI chief and Government’s reluctance to question him or PMO officials, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday sought to assert that he was ready to being probed.
“I have not prevented anybody from looking at my conduct,” the Prime Minister (PM) told reporters on board his special aircraft while returning home from the G-20 summit in St Petersburg. This was in reply to a question as to why he had not gone ahead and said he was ready for questioning in the coal scam as he did on the 2G Spectrum controversy.
As things stand, the CBI chief has overruled his junior’s suggestion for questioning the PM in the coal scam and the Department of Personnel and Training has refused the investigative agency permission to quiz the Prime Minister’s adviser TKA Nair. The PM was in-charge of the Coal Ministry from 2006 to 2009. The PM had made a similar assertion when the 2G scam rocked Parliament in 2010. He had offered to appear before the Public Accounts Committee saying “despite there being no such precedent”. The Congress, as also the Government, though, strongly opposed any demand for his questioning, thereafter. With the issue of missing files related to coal blocks' allocation surfacing, the Opposition recently forced Singh to make a statement in Parliament.
The Opposition, however, was not satisfied with his reply. Asked if he believes that he himself has sufficiently answered many of the BJP’s questions about his Government, about him in person and his charge that the Opposition party is obstructing Parliament and hurting the economy, he said: “I try to answer all questions that have been raised. I have no desire to hide anything from Parliament, whether it is the coal issue, or other matters. I have been as forthright as I can.”
He said he was not allowed to read the statement he had made on the coal matter in the previous session of Parliament, but which he issued later and which is a public document. “So I am an open book,” he said. With the clamour for making Rahul Gandhi the party's PM candidate, Singh said he would be “very happy” to work under his leadership.
“I have always maintained that Rahul Gandhi would be an ideal choice for the PM’s post after the 2014 elections (lok Sabha). I will be very happy to work in the Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi,” he said. Singh also did not rule out any alliances with erstwhile ally Trinamool Congress in the future, saying in politics there are no permanent enemies and permanent friends.
He also remained non-committal on meeting his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif later this month in New York saying he will have to factor in “certain harsh realities” like India being affected by terror before arriving at a “final decision”. “If the terror acts do not stop, if those who voice terrorist thoughts move about freely, if there is no significant progress in bringing the culprits of the Mumbai massacre to book - that I have to factor in before arriving at a final decision,” he said.
“I have always maintained that we can choose our friends, but we have no choice with regard to our neighbours. And therefore, under normal conditions, I would be happy to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whom I respect, who has said the right things about how relations between our two countries should evolve,” he maintained.