The Left parties are leaving no stone unturned to demean the PM’s statement, with some leaders using unfortunate language
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement in Parliament on Monday on the allocation of coal blocks to private parties — which has kicked up a major controversy following the report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General and brought on a veritable political crisis caused by the BJP’s vehemence in disrupting Parliament as an institution — is robust, detailed and gives every appearance of being thorough and transparent.
As such, it needed to be debated from all sides on the floor of Parliament so that the smallest chink in the government’s armour may be exposed.
Alas, this has not been possible on account of the BJP raising the immobilisation of Parliament to the level of a virtue. Parliament is not a court of law where guilt is pronounced in a civil or criminal matter. But the “accountability” that the top leadership of the principal Opposition party seeks from the government would be automatically revealed in a detailed debate as the government is obliged to answer every question that is raised. “Accountability” is made apparent in a debate and does not have to be excavated like coal. Thus revealed, it goes a long way in shaping the mood in the court of public opinion.
The BJP’s tactics, by falsely juxtaposing parliamentary debate against accountability, are preventing this from happening. The Left parties, while not going with the BJP in blocking Parliament (in the eyes of the public, they like to be seen apart from the saffron party), are leaving no stone unturned to demean the PM’s statement, with some leaders using unfortunate language. This is no less malicious than the BJP’s charge of “mota maal” (hefty bribes) being earned by the ruling party through coal block allocations. These issues could have been stripped to the bone in a parliamentary debate. But the Left is not pressing for it. Typical of small-timers, it is busy sniping at Dr Singh from the sidelines even as the BJP chooses to attack frontally. Strangely, the Right and the Left are both agreed that criticising the CAG’s report by the Prime Minister is to strike at a constitutional authority and at “constitutionalism” itself, to use the words of a top BJP leader. This is absurd. No constitutional office in India can be deemed above criticism which is fair and well-grounded.
In a scholarly manner Dr Singh has taken up for fact-based rebuttal the principal points made by the CAG, including the basis of his calculation of presumed loss and the reasons for delay in bringing in the system of auctions in giving out natural resources. These are worthy of serious consideration by the people, not cavalier tossing round by a class of
demagogues.