The stalemate between Government and the opposition has entered its second week even as Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh dismissed opposition’s allegations that he has role in coal allocation scam. BJP-led opposition disrupted Prime Minister’s important 32-point four page long statement intending to clarify his and his Government’s position on coal scam. He had barely made a few points in reply to the allegations brought against the Government when the session in the Lok Sabha had to be adjourned owing to ensuing ruckus in the house. The situation in the Rajya Sabha was not very different.
There are many shoots and off-shoots of the coal scandal issue. But the major controversy rages about the non competitive bidding of coal blocks and their arbitrary allotment to investors, and secondly that of not bringing in reforms in coal allocation policy and criteria. The entire debate springs from the report of the CAG. It has found that by not allocating coal blocks through competitive bidding, the State exchequer has lost a hefty amount to the tune of 1.86 lakh crore rupees. The most unfortunate part of this entire debate or controversy is that it has brought the integrity of the CAG to question. The Prime Minister called the report “flawed” and “disputable”.
CAG is an institution created by the State through constitutional provision. It is part and parcel of the Government. It is an organization manned by highly technical and experienced financial experts. It has nothing to do with party politics and party interests. As such, it is unbecoming on the part of stakeholders to bring the blame of bias and partisanship to its door. Yes, there can be human error and no human being is bestowed with angelic qualities of flawlessness. But to attribute motives to it is unfortunate and certainly not a healthy sign of a democratic system.
The Government is within its right to contend that the report of the CAG could be erroneous in part or that the CAG has, through some oversight, missed some vital aspects of the case and thus has been led to erroneous or disputable conclusion. In that case the Government is supposed to defend its contention through all available evidence. This being the practice, it was expected that the scandal would be handled through the agency of PAC. But all norms of conducting fair debate on the subject have been violated and the parliament has been paralyzed by shouting down the Government and deciding upon march-outs and disruption of the proceedings. The opposition has made one point stand viz. resignation of the Prime Minister. Well, the opposition can demand anything it wants but that does not happen that easy in a democracy. Opposition’s demand of PM’s resignation would have been enormously reinforced if it had succeeded in cornering the Government in an open debate in the parliament. That has not happened. At the end of a day of charges and counter charges, the two sides have taken the support of neutral media to plead their respective case. In between, many rumours have been floated. It was said that the PM would make a television appeal to the nation, or that all BJP members in the Parliament would resign from membership or that the one or the other side would bring in a confidence or no-confidence motion in the parliament to settle the score and so forth and so on.
It is a sad day for Indian democracy that such an unbecoming scenario has taken shape in the parliament. The opposition is perhaps assessing the situation not exclusively in the wake of coalgate but feels that the scam-ridden UPA Government has not been able to deliver the goods and that the time has come when big change should take place in country’s political chemistry. The Anna Hazare-led social movement against scams and corruption and Baba Ramdev-led movement for retrieval of national wealth stashed in foreign banks are indicative of a restive society not content and not happy with the dispensation as it is in place at this point of time. Whatever be the position of the Government and the opposition in the parliament, an overview of socio-political scenario in the country is one which indicates that the civil society does expect change for better dispensation. The Government cannot wish away the opposition and the opposition cannot expect the Government to abandon its post on mere sword rattling. This nation has to come of age. It owes some responsibility, moral as well as historical, not only to the nation but also to the free world which has great expectations from a democratic India. Excluding Japan, India is the only country in the Asian continent where democracy is firmly entrenched and from which the entire developing world can seek inspiration. We wish that our parliamentarians of all hues and political affiliations understand the weight and depth of this argument and rise to the expectations of the world community. Each word spoken in the Parliament and each phrase uttered by the speakers is heard, discussed and analysed by the nation and the world with utmost attention and inquisitiveness. Our word to them would be this: Friends put nation before the party or self; be guided by sanity, conviction and conscience; do not trivialize the destiny of a billion people. You are strong when guided by truth but you are wretched when you become a prey to falsehood.
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