India’s government appealed on Friday to opposition lawmakers to “allow parliament to function” as it denied accusations that it had lost billions of dollars by giving away coal fields. The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is insisting it will not allow parliament to operate until 79-year-old Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepts responsibility over the so-called “Coalgate” scandal and quits. “We make a fervent appeal to the opposition to allow parliament to function,” said Finance Minister P. Chidamabaram after the lawmakers ended a fourth day on Friday without discussing any legislative business.
India’s parliament has been paralysed since the auditor criticised last week the government’s decision to give away coal blacks since 2004 in a murky allocation process rather than selling them via a transparent auction. It said companies given valuable resources had made windfall profits of 1.85 trillion rupees or $33 billion, a part of which could have gone to the national exchequer. Chidambaram strongly contested the auditor’s “flawed” figure. The “presumptive loss (estimated by the auditor) I deeply regret to say is so flawed”, Chidambaram said, adding only one out of 57 coal blocks investigated by the auditor had actually been mined for coal. “If coal is not mined, if coal remains buried in mother earth, where is the loss?” he asked. Analysts too have questioned the figures, saying the companies would have had to spend billions of dollars to develop the coal mines meaning their profits would have been much lower than suggested by the auditor’s calculations. “The government is willing to debate and discuss any subject” including the findings of the auditor’s report and Singh “is fully prepared to answer all questions that may arise”, Chidambaram said. “We are not running away from a debate.” Singh’s aura as India’s Mr Clean has been eroded by the string of scandals that have beset his government, including charges by the auditor in 2010 that the treasury lost out on $39 billion by underpricing telecom spectrum. He is in the line of fire because besides being premier he was in charge of the coal ministry from 2004 to 2009 when the fields were being allocated. The stalemate in parliament comes as India’s economy has slowed dramatically and investors and business leaders are looking for action from the Congress-led government to restore confidence and spur expansion.
