BJP defends washout of Monsoon Session of Parliament

BJP today defended the washout of nearly the entire Monsoon Session of Parliament by the Opposition saying a similar exercise in 2010 on the 2G spectrum issue had led to cleansing of the telecom sector and hoped it will bring transparency in allocation of natural resources.

At a session-end press conference here, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA government for the reported anomalies in coal block allocations.

BJP announced that it will take the fight to the streets and from "village to village" after not allowing Parliament to function.

The main opposition maintained it is not in favour of disrupting Parliament often and it should be resorted to in the "rarest of rare cases" but insisted that the 2G spectrum scam and now the coal scam demanded this.

"One session of Parliament has earlier been lost on account of corruption in allotment of 2G spectrum. That helped this country to cleanse the telecom sector. Hopefully, the long term gains of this session may enable future governments to clean up the process of allocation of natural resources," Jaitley said.

Terming the allotment of coal blocks as arbitrary and discretionary, he alleged that these took place "under the very nose of the Prime Minister who also held the coal portfolio" are textbook case of "crony capitalism".

The party suggested that the government institute a commission of inquiry into coal scam and the Prime Minister depose before it.

BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters outside Parliament that the party will now go to the streets to make people aware of the government's "wrong doings" on various fronts.

"We are not demanding mid-term polls but we want the government to go. The reason being the government has not only failed on all fronts but is also deeply involved in corruption," he said.

The BJP leaders alleged that government had allocated coal blocks to politicians and business persons close to the UPA.

"Many (allottees) have nothing to do with either steel or power sectors. Many were name-lenders and rentiers. They used their political clout to get an allocation, either in their own name or in the name of a joint venture. And then they exited after a windfall gain," Jaitley alleged.

The party maintained that it was forced to disrupt Parliament as being the principal opposition it could not remain silent. "We used this session of Parliament to shake the conscience of the people of India and appealed to the government to correct the monumental fraud committed on public exchequer," Swaraj said.

BJP will chalk out the contours of its plan for taking the issue to the people at its Core Group meeting next week. The party sees more potential of reaching out to the people and attacking the Congress-led UPA on the coal block allocation issue than the earlier the 2G spectrum scam which was esoteric and difficult to comprehend for the common man.

The opposition continued its tirade against the Prime Minister and maintained that either he himself or the PMO is the "kingpin" of the delay in implementing the auction system for allocating coal blocks. It referred to the minutes of a July 25, 2005 meeting in the PMO to claim that this "conclusively establishes" this allegation.

"They (PM and PMO) were aware of the fact that competitive bidding will only transfer the windfall gains to the government exchequer and not hike the power rates," Jaitley said.

The party alleged that cancellation of coal block allotments is "nowhere among the Prime Minister's priorities" and pressed for his resignation. BJP maintained that cancellation of these allotments will have a beneficial impact on the economy as auctions will bring more revenue.

Justifying the disruptions in Parliament, BJP said it may have caused a loss of few crores but in the 2G case there will be a gain of lakhs of crores as the government goes for auctions with Rs 14,000 crore as the base price.

A similar outcome can be expected on the coal issue, Swaraj said.
"UPA is a regime which is committed to kleptocracy. This is what they have done to the country," Jaitley said.

Swaraj maintained that the UPA is only a trustee of the people and the exchequer is not their fiefdom. She alleged that the charges in the coal scam go upto the doors of the Congress.

The main opposition party stood by its Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Sancheti who was alloted a coal block in Chhattisgarh, saying his company had acquired it through competitive bidding and he was only a minority shareholder. It said all coal allocations should be probed.

The party also termed the inter-ministerial group (IMG) looking into the coal block allocations an "eyewash" saying the issue here is not of squatting on mines and not engaging in mining but of arbitrary allocations.

Asked about Prime Minister Singh's charge that Parliament did not function due to the Opposition, Jaitley said, "You can slightly amend it. The House did not run due to corruption."

He claimed that the party had set the agenda on the coal block allocation issue and this had made parties like SP and the Left also oppose the government on the issue.

Jaitley denied that that the BJP wanted to go it alone in the fight against the UPA government, saying, "Our preference is not for isolation." He expressed gratitude to parties like AIADMK and the NDA allies for espousing the cause.