Statement issued by Mrs. Sushma Swaraj. Leader of
Opposition,Lok Sabha and Shri Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha
on
4th September,2013
The Coal Block
Allocation Scam is becoming murkier and murkier.
A news report appearing in “The Indian Express” today i.e.
4th September,2013 has stated that the Senior Superintendant of
Police, Shri K.R. Chaurasia on perusal of of the entire material
collected during investigation has desired that the then Coal
Minister during the period 2006 to 2009 Dr. Manmohan Singh requires to be
questioned. This suggestion has so far not found favour with
the higher ups in the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Dr.Manmohan Singh was then and is now the Prime Minister of
India. The consequence of this is critical to the
investigation. A substantially large number of
files/documents/applications connected with the coal block
allocation scam have disappeared. The documentary evidence is
missing. In the absence of this documentary evidence the CBI has necessarily to
rely on the oral evidence which will include statements of witnesses and
examination of persons who are likely to be in the know of
relevant facts. The documentary evidence has
disappeared. The oral examination is not being
permitted. The consequences of this
will be critical and adverse to the investigation. It
seems that the effort of the UPA government is to sabotage
the investigation and render it
ineffective.
The essence of the coal block allocation has been the
arbitrary allotment of coal blocks at virtually no cost.
Favourites of the ruling party were chosen for bestowing upon them the
largesse of allocation of coal block. Several leaders close
to the ruling party applied for coal block allocation along with their chosen
principals. Obviously these persons were
name-lenders. There was no criteria for
allotment. There is no record of why the
favourite was preferred over the others. The
criteria for selection was arbitrary. The
Screening Committee acted as per the dictates of the powers that be.
The Prime Minister acting as the Coal Minister and the Prime Minister
Office approved the list of favourites arbitrarily
chosen.
Notwithstanding the monitoring of the investigation by the honourable
Supreme Court, crucial files of the investigation have disappeared.
The Parliament was initially mislead so as to create
an impression that only pre 2004 files are missing. However,
it now transpires that a large number of files which pertain to allocation
between 2006 to 2009 are also missing. The
disappearance of the files, the doctoring of the status report at the behest of
a minister and officials of the PMO have been the hurdles which the government
has tried to create in the honest conduct of investigation.
The Parliament has obviously been concerned with the factum of missing
files. The current Coal Minister has made two statements
before the Parliament which fall short of making a complete and
honest disclosure. The Opposition members
therefore wanted the Prime Minister to be available for answering all
queries. After a great deal of effort the Prime Minister
finally made a statement before the two Houses of Parliament.
The statement was not even willing to acknowledge the reality of missing
files. It referred to the factum of files missing as “the
so-called missing files” . The issue of missing files was
treated as more hypothetical than real. The failure of the
honourable Prime Minister to acknowledge the factum of
missing files, the importance of the missing files inasmuch as they pertain
to the very crucial cases which are a subject matter of
investigation, the defiance of the authority of the Supreme
Court by the Government and its clear indifference to the fact that this is a
court monitored investigation, the presentation of half baked
facts to Parliament by the Coal Minister are all pointers to the fact that the
Government does not want the truth to come out.
As Members of the principal Opposition we are constrained to believe that
the documentary evidence in term of files has been made to
disappear, The Prime Minister is not available for answering
questions before Parliament and when the investigating officer from the CBI
wants to examine the Prime Minister he is presently not
permitted to do so. The casualty in the process is the
discovery of truth with regard to the coal block allocations.
Under the circumstances on behalf of our Party we are constrained to
demand that the Government confirm or deny the fact that the
investigating officer Shri Chaurasia has required the
examination of the Prime Minister on basis of the material before him so that no
further tampering and doctoring of the investigation takes place. The material
on basis of which he requires the examination of the Prime Minister should also
be publicly disclosed. This will cause no
objection to any person since most of the evidence regarding coal block
allocation are in public domain. The reasons on basis of
which the Prime Minister’s examination is not being permitted should also be
made public.
The Government must further register a First Information Report with
regard to the stolen/missing documents. The Government must
also explain why the same has not been done till date.
