NEW DELHI, Aug 26:
In order to defuse the deadlock in Parliament over the coalgate scam that has left the House proceedings stalled for the entire week, the Government plans to field Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself in addressing the issue with an ‘address to the nation’.
Highly placed sources said moves are afoot to resolve the impasse between the Opposition and the UPA over the alleged coal field allotment scandal, but if talks fail and the NDA continued to lay siege of the House further tomorrow, Dr Singh may address the nation to clear away the air.
Sources also said the PM’s address could be in a day or two, if the present stalemate in Parliament continued.
Proceedings in both Houses of Parliament have been disrupted by
Opposition NDA led by the BJP over the alleged lack of transparency in allocation of coal blocks to private players when the Coal Ministry was under Dr Singh.
The allocation, instead of bidding, of the coal fields has led to the exchequer losing nearly Rs 1.85 lakh crore or USD 37 billion, as pointed by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report laid before Parliament last week.
Meanwhile, the Congress today said steps were afoot to solve the problem, and leaders were being contacted to end disruption of Parliament further.
Freshly appointed party spokesperson Sandeep Dikshit, while calling the BJP’s demand of the Prime Minister’s resignation on the Coalgate issue as ‘ridiculous’ said, “It is completely misrepresenting the CAG report.”
Talking to reporters Mr Dikshit said by failing to agree on a discussion in Parliament on the issue, the BJP was not allowing the Prime Minister to speak on charges concerning the CAG report or present his version on the matter.
While admitting that all possibilities of finding a way out of the impasse was on, Mr Dikshit said what exactly would be the government’s final stand on the issue in the next few days was yet not clear.
He, however, said that Finance Minister P Chidambaram was involved in solving the issue.
Speculation on the PM addressing the nation gained currency also after Mr Chidambaram told the media last Friday that if the Prime Minister was not allowed to speak in the House, the government will seek ways for him to speak to the nation directly.
The address to the nation, if has to happen, would be latest by tomorrow as the Prime Minister is scheduled to leave on a three-day visit to Iran on Tuesday, August 28, to attend the August 30-31 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit.
On the other hand, in order to ensure that House proceedings run smoothly in coming days, Speaker Meira Kumar too has called a meeting of political parties tomorrow.
The Prime Minister is also geared up to rebut the charges, contending that there were “inaccuracies” in the “misleading” assessment of loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore. In a six-point response, which he is unable to present in Parliament due to stalemate caused by the Opposition, he would be citing that Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Odisha and Jharkhand, all ruled by non-UPA Governments, had opposed in 2005 the Centre’s move to bring a legislation on auction process.
BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy admitted that party leader Sushma Swaraj had talked to various opposition leaders for their support in unitedly seeking the Prime Minister’s resignation.
“As leader of the principal opposition party, it is her duty to seek support of various political parties in putting up a united fight against corruption,” Rudy said.
On whether Parliament will function, he said, “We will see tomorrow. But this fight against corruption will not be allowed to be weakened.”
Another senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said, “We are seeking the resignation because if A Raja had to go because he signed the 2G spectrum allocation, if Dayanidi Maran had to go because of his role, here is the PM, as a coal minister, has signed each and every allotment. Every minister who resigns has a right to explain, so the moment he resigns he can explain.”
On Parliament logjam, he said, “All parties are definitely worried about the situation. We all will meet, let us see…”
Yet another BJP leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha rejected Congress attempts to shift the blame on BJP-ruled State Governments on the coal block allocation issue and offered readiness to face a CBI probe if any of its Governments’ recommendations turned out to be malafide.
Demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation on grounds of moral responsibility and constitutional accountability, he defended the party’s strategy of obstructing Parliament.
“There is a criminal liability and there is a moral constitutional accountability. What we are demanding today of the Prime Minister is to resign on the issue of morality, on the issue of accountability,” Sinha said.
Dasgupta earlier said Swaraj had called up to convey BJP’s decision of stalling the remaining part of the Monsoon Session and seeking support of the Left parties, which are likely to take up a common stand on the issue.
On BJP’s decision to stall Parliament, Dasgupta said, “This is very unfortunate and highly reprehensible. It undermines the Parliamentary democracy system. It weakens the all out national unity against corruption.”
He also charged the Government with allowing the deadlock to continue and said, “The Government is getting an opportunity to escape and evade fundamental issues like the economic crisis and other problems facing the country.
“Left has not been demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation and has sought a statement from him,” he said.
Sources said JD-U was keen on raising the CAG reports on Power and Airport issues and were not happy with BJP’s “stern stand” taken only on the coal allocation issue.
JD-U also said the CAG report was not just confined to the coal issue, but other issues like irregularities in power sector and airport also too could have been discussed in Parliament. (Agencies)
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