BJP stokes coal fire,wants PM Manmohan Singh to depose before CBI

The Indian Express had reported today that CBI officer K R Chaurasia,investigating the allocation of coal blocks,had put on record the “requirement” to “examine” the PM. But CBI director Ranjit Sinha is learnt to have noted that the PM’s examination wasn’t required “at this stage”.

BJP to raise issue of missing coalgate files in Parliament

In the Lok Sabha,Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said the PM is “under cloud” as he held the coal portfolio between 2006 and 2009. “If the PM wants to see himself come clean on this issue,he should himself come forward and offer to depose before the CBI,” she said.

Full text: Prime Minister’s statement on missing coal files

In a joint statement issued later,Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart,Arun Jaitley,said,”The PM is not available for answering questions before parliament and when the investigating officer from the CBI wants to examine the PM he is presently not permitted to do so. The casualty in the process is the discovery of truth with regard to the coal block allocations.”

They said the government should disclose its “reasons” for not going ahead with the PM’s examination. “The government (must) either confirm or deny the fact that the investigating officer… has required the examination of the PM on the basis of material before him so that no further tampering and doctoring of the investigation takes place. The material on the basis of which he requires the examination of the PM should also be publicly disclosed. This will cause no objection to any person since most of the evidence regarding coal block allocations are in public domain. The reasons on the basis of which the PM’s examination is not being permitted should also be made public,” they said.

“The government must register an FIR with regard to the stolen/ missing documents. The government must also explain why the same has not been done till date,” said the statement.

“In the absence of this documentary evidence,the CBI has to rely on oral evidence which will include statements of witnesses and examination of personas who are likely to be in the know of relevant facts. The documentary evidence has disappeared. The oral examination is not being permitted. The consequences of this will be critical and adverse to the investigation. It seems that the effort of the UPA government is to sabotage the investigation and render it ineffective,” they said.

Earlier in the day,with L K Advani,Swaraj and Jaitley giving no assurance to the PM at their late night meeting on Tuesday on allowing parliament to function,Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath met senior BJP leaders in the morning to broker an arrangement to break the logjam. It was agreed that the Opposition would be allowed to raise the issue in both the Houses after which the legislative business would be taken up. Nath was learnt to have proposed extension of the session,but the proposal was shot down by the BJP leaders.

Both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha then took up short duration discussions on the missing coal files. Swaraj told the House that she did not believe that the files had just gone missing and contended that it was a case of theft. “When are you going to file an FIR on the missing files? It is a serious issue,” she said. Her demand was supported by JD(U),SP,CPI(M),AIADMK and Shiv Sena members.

JD(U) president Sharad Yadav demanded a categorical response from the government on how many files were missing.