The Opposition parties on Saturday sought explanation from the Centre as to why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not been named in the Coalgate FIR and thus demanded the PMO “should not attempt to hamper” CBI’s probe into the scam.
Accusing the Congress of trying to water down the probe, BJP asked the Centre to explain why Prime Minister’s name was not included in the FIR. “Instead of probing into allegations against the Prime Minister, the Congress is trying to water down the investigation and implicate and harass those who exposed its misdeeds,” senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said in Hyderabad.
Referring to the naming of former Union Coal Secretary PC Parakh and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla in the latest CBI FIR in the scam, Naidu wondered why the agency shied away from naming the “competent authority”. “Who is the competent authorityIJ Why is the CBI shying away from naming the competent authorityIJ Competent authority is the Minister. Who is the Minister...Prime Minister! Why is the CBI shy of naming himIJ” he asked at a Press conference.
Referring to Parekh’s claim that if he was guilty, the Minister (concerned) was also guilty, the BJP leader demanded that the Congress and CBI respond to it. Naidu also said the Government should also explain the inclusion of Birla’s name in the FIR.
“Birla has a good reputation. Has his name been included in the FIR because he recently acquired a 46 per cent stake in a leading news magazineIJ The magazine has been publishing a series of stories about the country’s dwindling economy, defence issues and also about the “weak PM” in recent times,” Naidu pointed.
With the PMO rejecting charges of criminality in the coal block allocation to Hindalco, CPI demanded this top office “should not hamper” CBI’s probe into the coal scam. “law must take its course. The PMO should not hamper CBI’s investigations (into the coal scam). CBI must pursue its investigation without being influenced or pressured by anybody,” party national secretary D Raja said.
His statement came as the PMO rejected any criminality in the controversial allocation of coal block to Hindalco, saying Prime Minister had approved it on the basis of “merits” of the case placed before him.
“Some evidence must be available in the scam. Otherwise, why would CBI lodge an FIR against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and the former Coal SecretaryIJ It is for the courts to judge whether the evidence is dependable,” he said, adding a Secretary to the Government is an accused in the case and he “accuses the Prime Minister himself.”
Rejecting Opposition’s demand for the booking of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coal scam, Union Minister Manish Tewari said “there is a difference between an administrative head and the political head of the Ministry”.
Maintaining that it was unfair to hold the PM responsible for the administrative decisions taken by the government at the bureaucratic level, Tewari pointed out that Singh had been holding the coal portfolio only in the interim after Shibu Soren’s resignation as the then Coal Minister.
“By the time a file comes to the PM it has been processed by the coal bureaucracy and the bureaucracy within PMO. To expect the PM to scrutinise every file and then sign on it and then that being used by (Parekh) to say the PM is equally complicit, I think it’s a bit of a stretch,” Tewari, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, told to a news channel.