BJP offers to break gridlock

House can work if coal blocks are de-allocated

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Sunday indicated that her party could allow a discussion in Parliament on coal scam, if the government “accepts its demand” for a judicial probe and de-allocation of all the 142 coal blocks allotted between 2006 and 2009.

She said in Mumbai that the BJP would continue to demand that the prime minister “accept the responsibility” for the loss caused in the allocation of the coal blocks and resign.

As the government showed no sign of accepting the principal opposition party’s demand till late on Sunday, uncertainty continued to loom large over the last week of Parliament’s monsoon session, which will end on September 7.

Meeting today

As an Inter-Ministerial Group set to meet on Monday to decide the fate of the 58 blocks that their private and public lessees failed to develop within the stipulated time-frame, Coal Minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal said the government would take a call only after receiving the report from the panel.

He said that the Inter-Ministerial Group headed by Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Coal had been asked to submit its report by September 15 next.

The BJP continued to attack Singh over the CAG report on coal-block allocations between 2006 and 2009 and reiterated its demand for his resignation.

The principal opposition party, however, made a subtle change in its stand with both party veteran L K Advani and Swaraj stating that the gridlock in Parliament could be ended, if the Congress-led UPA government cancelled allocations of coal-blocks made during the period and order a separate inquiry.

“The NDA has offered to resolve the deadlock (in Parliament), if all the allotments made are cancelled and the process whereby the screening committee decided the allocations is subjected to a judicial probe,” Advani wrote in his weekly blog on Sunday. He also added that the Congress-led UPA government was not yet ready to accept the twin demands of the NDA.

“We have asked (UPA chairperson) Sonia Gandhi to cancel the licenses of coal block allocation and to conduct an independent inquiry by a Supreme Court judge,” Swaraj said.

In a bid to end the fortnight-long impasse in Parliament over the CAG’s report on ‘Coalgate’, Gandhi had called Swaraj on Saturday before leaving New Delhi on an overseas tour for medical check-up.

Swaraj clarified that the BJP had not climbed down from its demand for Prime Minister’s resignation.

“We stick to our demand that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should resign accepting moral responsibility for the coal block allocation scam,” she said, adding that Singh was directly responsible for coal block allocations as he had held the coal portfolio for a part of the time covered by the CAG in its report.

Advani also maintained that Singh’s statement in Parliament on August 27 last was “unconvincing”.

Ever since the CAG’s report on coal-block allocation was tabled in Parliament on August 17 last, the BJP has been disrupting the proceedings in both the Houses demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation, although its allies was keen to allow a discussion on the issue.

The party however changed its stand a bit to end its isolation from other non-UPA parties and to find a common ground with the Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam Party and leftist parties, which jointly demanded de-allocation of coal-blocks and a separate inquiry.