Five BJP members walked out of the Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting on Wednesday, that is, after two days of disruption of Parliament. Is it surprising?
By Francis Adams
There's Colgate that has been helping generations of Indians smile and now there's Coalgate that is threatening to snatch all that away. Joke apart, because it involves a colossal Rs 1.85 lakh crore (still trying to figure out how to convert that gargantuan sum into dollars) loss to the government worked out by the country's highest public auditing body, the Comptroller and Auditor General.
This is the second time that such an astronomical figure has been highlighted as loss to the government after the 2G spectrum telecom scam (Rs 1.76 lakh crore) that saw a few ministers go to jail and over which the country's two biggest political parties, the Congress, the party in governance of the country at the capital New Delhi and the Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday failed to come to terms for a Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting.
Reports of the reason behind the BJP members, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dharmendra Pradhan and Gopinath Munde walking out of the JPC meeting have been fuzzy. While Timesnow and IBNLive said that the BJP members walked out of the meeting dubbing it as a "kangaroo court", their close competitor, the NDTV said that the five walked out alleging that Congress members had used "unparliamentary" language and called the panel a "kangaroo court."
The NDTV reiterated the claim by further saying: "the BJP also accused the chairman of the panel, the Congress' PC Chacko, of being a mute spectator to the Congress calling the committee a "kangaroo court."
As a result, the citizens of the country are very likely to lose their smile over the political slug-fest that is muzzy and broadcast journalism that is fuzzy.
Meanwhile, the Hindustan Times quoted the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as saying that he has a six-point response revealing the Coalgate loss projected by the CAG was inaccurate and a misleading assessment.
Simultaneously, another channel, Headlines Today has claimed a special investigation it carried out into Coalgate unraveled the fact that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) made six attempts to prevent the auction of coal blocks, an issue that is the nucleus of this matter.
Last Sunday, Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, consulting editor of The Economic Times and a popular columnist called "India's leading economic journalist" by Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution wrote in his "Swaminomics" column that "Market-based procedures like auctions, which would eliminate bribes and increase revenue, are better. Allocation by lottery among qualified applicants would also eliminate bribes in cases where the government seeks low prices rather than revenue."
Aiyar claimed that allocations and not auctions "have been India's bane since 1947, and evil inherent in the licence-permit raj." He wrote that the BJP did not propose or implement auctions when it was governing the country from 1998 to 2004 and neither did the Communist Party of India that was part of the coalition government from 1996 to 1998 as it was happy with allocations.
Although exonerating the Prime Minister from this murky muddle, Aiyar did not spare the Congress saying that it was Manmohan Singh who was the first to suggest a shift from bribe-brimming coal allocation to bribe-less, rather free auctions in 2004. "His proposal failed, says coal minister [Sriprakash] Jaiswal, because of resistance from opposition-ruled states-these had the coal deposits, and had to be consulted while making allocations. Such consultations doubtless provided kickback opportunities for all. No wonder they all resisted auctions, including Congress," wrote Aiyar.
His suggestion: "Rather than call for Singh's head, all parties should be saying, "Hum sab chor hain" (we are all thieves)."
Such a conclusion also found favor with a prominent scholar, who on the condition of anonymity used a medieval reference from Eric Berkowitz's book "Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire" published by The Westbourne Press to describe the ruckus between the political parties. The reference says that during the Greek Classical period, the husband of a woman caught in adultery, was allowed to insert a spiky fish into his rival's anus, adding that Berkowitz's book includes a pleasant picture of the fish.
The Prime Minister may even have to explain his informed decision in calling the findings of the CAG, the supreme audit institution of India, as misleading and inaccurate. So far, there is no news of any citizen filing a case for Right to Information on the matter.
On its part, the CAG claims as its vision: "We strive to be a global leader and initiator of national and international best practices in public sector auditing and accounting and recognised for independent, credible, balanced and timely reporting on public finance and governance."
While the disruption of Parliament is likely to continue, with a few responsible media highlighting the loss from such acts, there are several pertinent questions that demand answers. Among them: Were there any transparent valuation done of all the mines by the competent authority? And: Have mine workers been compensated adequately considering the hazardous environment they work in?
To know more about mining see the "Principles of Mining - Valuation, Organization and Administration".
Horoscope Daily: Huffington Post, Bridgett Walther, Eastrolog, Independent, Erotiscopes, Russell Grant:
Patrick Arundell: Elle: Australia: Sydney Morning Herald's Kelly Fox: United States: Washington Post: India: India Times' Astrospeak:, Ganesha Speaks from Bejan Daruwala: Deccan Herald's Astrospeak with Amara Bavani Dev: Deccan Chronicle's Astroguide.
This is the second time that such an astronomical figure has been highlighted as loss to the government after the 2G spectrum telecom scam (Rs 1.76 lakh crore) that saw a few ministers go to jail and over which the country's two biggest political parties, the Congress, the party in governance of the country at the capital New Delhi and the Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday failed to come to terms for a Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting.
| Picture courtesy: livetradingnews.com |
Reports of the reason behind the BJP members, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dharmendra Pradhan and Gopinath Munde walking out of the JPC meeting have been fuzzy. While Timesnow and IBNLive said that the BJP members walked out of the meeting dubbing it as a "kangaroo court", their close competitor, the NDTV said that the five walked out alleging that Congress members had used "unparliamentary" language and called the panel a "kangaroo court."
The NDTV reiterated the claim by further saying: "the BJP also accused the chairman of the panel, the Congress' PC Chacko, of being a mute spectator to the Congress calling the committee a "kangaroo court."
As a result, the citizens of the country are very likely to lose their smile over the political slug-fest that is muzzy and broadcast journalism that is fuzzy.
Meanwhile, the Hindustan Times quoted the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as saying that he has a six-point response revealing the Coalgate loss projected by the CAG was inaccurate and a misleading assessment.
Simultaneously, another channel, Headlines Today has claimed a special investigation it carried out into Coalgate unraveled the fact that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) made six attempts to prevent the auction of coal blocks, an issue that is the nucleus of this matter.
Last Sunday, Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, consulting editor of The Economic Times and a popular columnist called "India's leading economic journalist" by Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution wrote in his "Swaminomics" column that "Market-based procedures like auctions, which would eliminate bribes and increase revenue, are better. Allocation by lottery among qualified applicants would also eliminate bribes in cases where the government seeks low prices rather than revenue."
Aiyar claimed that allocations and not auctions "have been India's bane since 1947, and evil inherent in the licence-permit raj." He wrote that the BJP did not propose or implement auctions when it was governing the country from 1998 to 2004 and neither did the Communist Party of India that was part of the coalition government from 1996 to 1998 as it was happy with allocations.
Although exonerating the Prime Minister from this murky muddle, Aiyar did not spare the Congress saying that it was Manmohan Singh who was the first to suggest a shift from bribe-brimming coal allocation to bribe-less, rather free auctions in 2004. "His proposal failed, says coal minister [Sriprakash] Jaiswal, because of resistance from opposition-ruled states-these had the coal deposits, and had to be consulted while making allocations. Such consultations doubtless provided kickback opportunities for all. No wonder they all resisted auctions, including Congress," wrote Aiyar.
His suggestion: "Rather than call for Singh's head, all parties should be saying, "Hum sab chor hain" (we are all thieves)."
Such a conclusion also found favor with a prominent scholar, who on the condition of anonymity used a medieval reference from Eric Berkowitz's book "Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire" published by The Westbourne Press to describe the ruckus between the political parties. The reference says that during the Greek Classical period, the husband of a woman caught in adultery, was allowed to insert a spiky fish into his rival's anus, adding that Berkowitz's book includes a pleasant picture of the fish.
The Prime Minister may even have to explain his informed decision in calling the findings of the CAG, the supreme audit institution of India, as misleading and inaccurate. So far, there is no news of any citizen filing a case for Right to Information on the matter.
On its part, the CAG claims as its vision: "We strive to be a global leader and initiator of national and international best practices in public sector auditing and accounting and recognised for independent, credible, balanced and timely reporting on public finance and governance."
While the disruption of Parliament is likely to continue, with a few responsible media highlighting the loss from such acts, there are several pertinent questions that demand answers. Among them: Were there any transparent valuation done of all the mines by the competent authority? And: Have mine workers been compensated adequately considering the hazardous environment they work in?
To know more about mining see the "Principles of Mining - Valuation, Organization and Administration".
Horoscope Daily: Huffington Post, Bridgett Walther, Eastrolog, Independent, Erotiscopes, Russell Grant:
Patrick Arundell: Elle: Australia: Sydney Morning Herald's Kelly Fox: United States: Washington Post: India: India Times' Astrospeak:, Ganesha Speaks from Bejan Daruwala: Deccan Herald's Astrospeak with Amara Bavani Dev: Deccan Chronicle's Astroguide.
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