Is it true that the country has suffered a staggering loss of US dollars 170 billion in allocation of coal blocks during the period 2004-2009? Newspaper reports often leave me confused; but Kaga Bhushundi ji’s answer perplexed me some more.
Kaga Bhushundi SpeakEth
Suman K Sharma
‘Yes, son; and no,’ he said in a self satisfied manner.
‘You talk in riddles, Kagaji. Give me a straight answer or else keep quiet. I will go google it rather than getting stuck with your ambiguity. ‘
‘There is nothing straight in man’s life, son. It is generally a winding path he has to traverse. The loss of the lakh-crores you mention is based on the way you look at the rules. So the earlier estimate got reduced to nearly one-sixth in the report submitted to the Sansad. Even that amount has been calculated on the presumption that the country would have earned that much more if there had been competitive bidding. There is that big ‘if’. Did the statute provide for it? Legal eagles in the Law Ministry gave a roundabout answer as they are wont to do. There was “no legal impediment to introduction of transparent and objective process of competitive bidding,” they said.’
‘Was then competitive bidding not mandatory?’
‘The statute didn’t say so specifically.’
‘But, Kaga ji, weren’t the people in the administrative ministry associated with framing of laws? They should have applied their mind at the drafting stage.’
‘I won’t go into that. The authorities followed the administrative orders. A Screening Committee was formed and as many as 218 captive coal blocks allocated for power, steel and cement industries. It is a different matter that the highest court of your country has cancelled all but four of the blocks, holding them illegal and arbitrary.’
‘Sounds too much like 2G Spectrum scam which left the government poorer by US dollars 29 billion. In that case too the Supreme Court has cancelled all the 122 spectrum licenses, describing them as “unconstitutional and arbitrary.” Besides, a fine of 5.5 crore rupees has been imposed on the telecom firms which had been unduly benefited.’
‘Son, the most interesting part of the story is that bit about the authority you call TRAI claiming that the government has profited by a neat sum of 30 billion dollars rather than losing anything. Kapil Sibal ji, former telecom minister, himself a reputed lawyer, tried to modulate the statement saying that it was a “zero loss” transaction.’
‘The latest scam – and perhaps the biggest so far at an estimated amount of 2 lakh crore rupees – is the mutation of Wakf land in Karnataka involving illegal transfer of properties meant for the welfare of poor Muslims to private persons. Kaga ji, it seems there are no adequate rules to follow while disposing of sarkari assets.’
‘Actually, son, the trouble is not paucity, but a plethora of rules. You name a case and I will cite any number of rules, sub rules, provisos, precedents and practices to deal with it. The labyrinth of rules so created – and maintained most assiduously – enables the powerful in and outside the sarkar to twist or turn a matter any which way they like. I will give you two instances. When the J&K flood victims approached insurance firms to claim compensation for their losses, they were shown the rules which require proper verification of any loss before payment. It took the Supreme Court again to decree: “Sometimes we have to ignore rules and regulations. Don’t ask us to pass orders that may affect people who have already suffered so much….” The other instance sounds as funny as it is serious. Shailja Chandraji, a retired Chief Secretary of Delhi, wrote in a recent editorial in The Indian Express that to effectively carry out Prime Minister Modiji’s Swachh Bharat Abiyan, the Union government will first have to amend its General Financial Rules. The reason: a part of GFR debars government functionaries to clear off the rubbish without adhering to the time-consuming procedure of calling for bids from raddi-walas in the area.’
‘Kaga ji, are you suggesting that we scrap rules?’
‘No, son, don’t scrap rules. Just clean them of the obfuscations and redundancies.’
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