NEW DELHI, Apr 14: Former CAG Vinod Rai today came out in support of ex-Coal Secretary P C Parakh, who has been named in an FIR registered by CBI in coal block allocation scam, claiming the investigating agency will eventually give him a clean chit.
Rai, whose speech was read in-absentia at Parakh’s book launch here, said he had perused all files of Coal Ministry and there was no criminal intent involved on the part of Parakh in allocation of Odisha’s Talabira II coal block which is being investigated by CBI.
“The big fish invariably get away scot-free and the sincere few are harassed. However, I still have trust in the system. I am very sanguine that after the CBI have made their regular and routine enquiry, they will come to the conclusion that no criminal intent could be heaped on the door of Parakh.
“If the investigation goes otherwise, it will indeed be a black day for Indian bureaucracy and Indian investigative systems. I say this with confidence as we have perused all the files in the Coal Ministry and that gives me the confidence to make this statement,” Rai said in his speech which was read out by Parakh’s son-in-law Mahesh Ramakrishnan.
Rai said if a criminal enquiry has to be conducted against a secretary to the government who in all sincerity tried to introduce transparency and efficiency in the Government process, then “there is something which has gone disarray in our system”.
He also also criticised the Government’s eight-year delay in coming out with a transparent policy for coal blocks allocation through open bidding despite having Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s go-ahead on it in 2004.
“No one advocates auctions or bidding merely for transparency and the argument that auctions make the product more expensive is a bogey…
“It is just that the decision could not be taken for reasons which are known to all,” Rai said, supporting Parakh’s claims in his book that the Prime Minister’s decision to have open bidding policy for coal blocks which were blocked by two former Ministers of State–Shibu Soren and Dasari Narayan Rao.
The former CAG said auditors cannot be cheer leaders and in fact they always have an adversarial relationship with the executive–be in corporate or in Government.
“Nevertheless, this is one time in which as a retired CAG, I am most unabashedly confessing that I wholeheartedly cheer and applaud the work and initiative taken by Parakh as the then Secretary to Government in the Ministry of Coal,” he said supporting the former Coal Secretary.
Rai said it was Parakh’s “windfall gains” expression which has been picked up by audit.
“We found it to be an apt expression as it very clearly depicts the benefits that were most undeservedly accruing to the select few. In fact, this procedure had the beginnings of crony capitalism in it—there is no denying the fact that the recipients of these mine blocks were indeed cronies with an approach to the right quarters,” he said.
Former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian, who also attended launch of Parakh’s book–Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and other Truths, was also critical of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s “weakness” to counter certain “political forces”.
“The Prime Minister in 2004 was also the Coal Minister. He had suggested auction of coal blocks. But distribution of coal blocks was done through old policy
“He was too weak to enforce it (his decision). Political forces were so strong and he could not overcome vested interest,” Subramanian said adding honest officers should not be harassed. (PTI)
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