Coalgate FIR: PM has to break his silence or the govt will suffer

As the CBI lodged an FIR against PC Parakh over the Coalgate scam, the former coal secretary lashed out the agency saying that if he and Kumar Mangalam Birla are being questioned over the issue, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh  should be held responsible since he approved the allocations. During a discussion on CNN-IBN on this development, while BJP’s Prakash Javadekar and Congress’s Sandeep Surjewala began a blame game, journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and business consultant Sunil Alagh were of the opinion that it was time the prime minister broke his silence and cleared the confusion regarding the coal block allocations. [caption id=“attachment_1176203” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Manmohan Singh. AFP[/caption] “There does not seem to be anything wrong in what was done regarding the coalblock allocations. If only the prime minister came out and said that KM Birla spoke to me and I approved allocations to his company based on merit the problem will be solved,” Alagh said. Guha Thakurta backed Alagh’s argument saying, “There is no doubt about the fact the prime minister was aware of what was going on. Hence, he needs to address this issue. His silence at this juncture will backfire terribly at the government.” Meanwhile Surjewala criticised the BJP and defended Manmohan Singh over the issue. “The BJP is trying to read meanings into Parakh’s statement. Where does the PM come in? Parakh has said that it was correct in Hindalco getting the coal block allocation,” he said. Rebutting the arguement, Javadekar said,“As far as Parakh is concerned the prime minister could have overruled him. He asked Parakh to reconsider the allocation, but then accepted it.” The two leaders also went onto blame each other over how the coal blocks were allocated. While Javadekar blamed the UPA government for not following the bidding method, Surjewala said, “It was the UPA that brought in the bidding process under the leadership of Manmohan Singh. During it’s tenure the BJP too had allocated 41 coal blocks through the same process.” Guha Thakurta also brought in the argument saying Kumar Mangalam Birla may have been named for all the wrong reasons. “Maybe Birla was named because he has just invested in a media company that is BJP leaning.” Defending the UPA on Guha Thakurta’s argument Surjewala said,“The CBI is absolutely independent now. The government has nothing to do with its probe. But before we start accusing top notch businessmen, the CBI has to be careful and make sure no ones image is hurt.”