Opinion Coal scandal

An editorial justifies the opposition’s demand for an explanation from the government over reports that the Union law minister tried to influence the Supreme Court-ordered CBI probe. It says the BJP,while initially agreeing with this demand,upped the ante by seeking the resignation of both the prime minister and the law minister,which,it says,“along with the government’s obduracy,has lead to the present impasse”.

“There could well be some degree of ‘match-fixing’ here as some of the coal block allocations go back to the period of the NDA government. That this is no mere suspicion has been endorsed by the report of the parliamentary standing committee on coal submitted this week. Chaired by a prominent Trinamool Congress MP,this committee’s report documents in detail all acts of omission and commission in coal blocks allocation,including [in the period of the BJP-led NDA government… the government must be forced to come clean on how it is influencing the CBI in its investigations on this issue. This is all the more necessary as there are many charges of the government using the CBI to further its political objectives…” it states.

DISTRACTED BY SCAMS

THE CPI believes that the issue of corruption is being used to divert the people’s attention from the basic socio-economic issues and avoid a meaningful debate in Parliament over such issues.

“On the eve of every Parliament session,some sensational revelations are made and the entire session is spoiled in the fixed match-fight” between the UPA and the BJP-led opposition. “This has happened this time too. Parliament,after the break,has resumed work this week. But so far,it has failed to transact any meaningful business… Everybody is busy in discussing the leakage of the draft report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the 2G Spectrum scam or the attempt by the Union law minister to doctor the CBI report on Coalgate,” the editorial in CPI journal New Age says.

“Though government seems to be determined to push through the agenda of economic reform,it has no intention to take up the legislations that it claims to have drafted for ‘inclusive growth’,” it argues.

BESIEGED TRINAMOOL

An editorial in the CPI(ML) weekly ML Update criticises the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal over the chit fund scam and argues that it has now become clear that the TMC and Saradha group owner Sudipta Sen were in a “symbiotic relationship”.

“The print and television media funded by him was avowedly pro-government. Kunal Ghosh,a Rajya Sabha member of the TMC,was CEO of that media empire… Many Trinamool leaders were on the Saradha payroll,drawing fat paychecks. It has been revealed that Saradha had sponsored the ambulances and cycles that were distributed in Jungle Mahal last year. Allegedly,Sen bought a painting by Mamata Banerjee,for a whopping sum of Rs 1.86 crore! Sen himself has claimed that as many as 22 TMC leaders were involved,” the editorial claims.

The article argues that Chief Minister Banerjee’s attempt to pass an ordinance in the state assembly,which she claims would empower the state government against Saradha-like schemes,commands “little credibility,as Sen cannot be tried under this proposed new ordinance”.

It does not spare the CPM,saying that neither it nor the Congress can wash its hands off the affair and notes that Sen’s meteoric rise took place when the Left Front was in power. “It has been alleged that Sen acquired thousands of acres of land in Bishnupur in the district of Bankura in direct connivance with local CPM leaders… Both the Tarun Gogoi government in Assam and the Manik Sarkar government in Tripura have been alleged to be complicit in Saradha’s operations in their respective states,” it claims.

Compiled by Manoj C.G.