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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Political expedience should not override norms of democracy

Political expedience should not override norms of democracy

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published Published on Aug 28, 2012   modified Modified on Aug 28, 2012
-The Economic Times

The disruption of Parliament over coal raises four issues. The first is the BJP not allowing a debate to take place on the so-called coal scam. The second is the machinations in coal and the Comptroller and Auditor General's estimate of loss and gain. 

The third is the CAG suggesting that the government should have overridden the objections of state governments to the Centre's proposal to hold auctions for allocation of captive blocks. And the fourth is the Prime Minister making a clarificatory statement in Parliament. 

It is irresponsible for the BJP to refuse to debate a vital national issue in Parliament and amounts to disdain for the due processes of democracy. Political expedience guides this stance: a rational debate would inevitably dissipate the charge of corruption being raised against the Prime Minister. 

The fact is that allocation of captive mines stems from coal's legal status as a state monopoly and the reality of Coal India Ltd's inability to mine coal fast enough to meet the economy's needs. 

Allocating captive mines has been a lucrative source of kickbacks for politicians of all hues at both the Centre and in the states. The Prime Minister initiated a move in 2004 to bring in auctions for allocations and met with stiff opposition from his partymen, BJP legislators and state governments run by the BJP and the Left. The law ministry waffled on whether the law needed to be amended to hold auctions and finally concluded it did. The reality is that without consensus across the political and federal divide, such a major policy change could not have been made. 

The legal change was finally made in 2010. In-between, allocation of blocks could not have been stopped and allocations were made by a screening committee with representatives from state governments. 

For the CAG to suggest that the Centre should have gone for auctions riding roughshod over the opinions of state governments, without waiting for changing the law, is way beyond the auditor's mandate and amounts to impropriety. The PM should speak more often in this categorical fashion. This is a political battle that is going on and, in politics, silence is not golden.

The Economic Times, 28 August, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/political-expedience-should-not-override-norms-of-democracy/articleshow/15857290.cms?


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