Sibal's sabre-rattling

Kapil Sibal is trying to bully the supreme court to go slow on coal scam. He has suggested that judiciary should take up monitoring fake encounters in Gujarat with the same gusto seen in the investigation into coal allocations. What is the connection between the two?

If the government has nothing to hide in the coal scam, why is the minister peeved? It goes without saying that fake encounters anywhere needs to be investigated. The honourable minister ought to approach judiciary instead of issuing a public statement.

We have the sad spectacle of aggressive ministers acting as loose cannons under (but not reporting to) a dumb prime minister who is indifferent to what is happening.

Peripatetic prime minister

The Economist points out that Manmohan Singh has spent a tenth of his near-decade as prime minister abroad. He has flown more than 1m km in 72 official visits.(He is not done yet.) "Beleaguered at home by scandal and gloomy prospects for his ruling Congress party, the airport departure lounge is more tempting than ever." It is difficult to get eviscerated in more blunt terms.

As a bonus the magazine adds, "And abroad he is unconstrained by his part boss, Sonia Gandhi." It is widely believed that coal allocations were made at the instance of Sonia Gandhi conveyed through her most trusted secretary, Ahmed Patel. Of course, PMO has denied this inference.

How did the venerable Singh land in this mess? Had he done something in the past that is opportunistically utilised by his leader to blackmail him into falling in line without demur? Future will reveal.

Rahul Gandhi's supreme sacrifice

Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly explained to the electorate how much sacrifice has been made by his grand-mother and father. Both were killed and "they might kill me also". Government of India, as usual, has swung into action and assured the worried electorate that ample protection is given to Rahulji.

GOI may be protecting the leader from people. But is it not their duty to protect him from bugs and mosquitoes also? The young leader has narrated how he was harassed by bed bugs and even a stomach bug when he was 'experiencing' poverty by staying a few hours with the aam aadmi. I hope that the government will understand the seriousness of the issue and wage a war against the communal flies and insects.

The nation cannot afford to miss Rahul Gandhi's services even for a day. What if he is down with dengue or malaria? One shudders to think of attempts being made on his life. Prahalad's father had a boon that he would not be killed by any human being. That was why the Almighty had to incarnate as Narasimha (part human and part lion). Rahul also is so powerful that no human being can harm or defeat him. But he must be careful about the winged insects.

Manish Tewari's strange advice: Part II

The Hindu reports:

"Dr. Singh was ‘satisfied’ that the final decision taken in this regard was ‘entirely appropriate’, and was based ‘on the merits of the case placed before him’. This is the first time Dr. Singh has clearly and unequivocally come out in support of the former coal secretary P.C Parakh, in the wake of the recent controversy where Mr. Parakh, along with Mr. Birla, has been named by the CBI in a fresh FIR."

It is unfortunate that the prime minister has ignored the noble advice of his cabinet colleague, Manish Tewari and gone public on a case which is 'subjudice'. There is one more interesting development. After the prime minister clarified that the final decision was entirely appropriate and was based on the merits of the case placed before him, Salman Khurshid and Manish Tewari have proffered the golden principle that bureaucrats and not the ministers are responsible for the decisions taken. A new kind of democracy on the anvil?

If ministers are not accountable for decisions, what are they accountable for? The twin ministerial luminaries have also clarified as P.Chidambaram had earlier explained in another context that ministers cannot be expected to read the notes which are approved by them. What an exemplary view!

On what authority does Manmohan Singh now claim that the decision was taken based on the merits of the case placed before him? Had he committed the unpardonable sin of reading the note placed to him?
Why should the ministers say that the prime minister cannot be expected to read the note after the latter 'admitted' to and pleaded guilty of reading the file?

In the FIR filed against Parakh and K M Birla, Singh should also have been named. Can the CBI now think of dropping the FIR on the basis of a rare assertion of the "should have been named" Singh?

Murphy's Law states "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". GOI's Law says,"Anything that cannot go wrong, will also go wrong". Great going!

Manish Tewari's strange advice

Manish Tewari, the belligerent spokesperson of the Congress party, is known for supposing that he is a repository of wisdom and everyone else is a dunce. When the entire country is anxious to know what is the accountability of our non-responsive prime minister in the coal scam especially when much cleaner hands are targetted by the CBI, the I & B minister offers this triple-pointed wisdom:

1) The matter is sub-judice; so no one should speak about this;
2) People should speak appropriately at appropriate forums,

and best of all 3) the government is giving all information to investigating authorities.

The basic questions are: Does the honourable minister want to gag the entire country? What are appropriate forums? What happened to the missing files? If the minister claims that all information is provided to the CBI, does he mean that the missing files are blank files?

There are occasions when ministers will be helpful if they keep quiet. This is one such occasion.

Rahul Gandhi's emotional appeal

"My mother refused to leave parliament when the food bill was passed ...I tried stopping her but she went inside parliament after a medical check-up... I dragged her to a hospital... She was unable to breathe when she landed in the hospital and she had tears in her eyes. She said she fought for the bill and wanted to vote on it. But she could not." This is Rahul Gandhi's dramatisation of his mother's concern for the poor.

If the concern were real, so many scams would not have been facilitated. The Congress party is in such a terrible mess today that only emotional appeals are possible. A party once nurtured by stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel is now trivialised by reckless leaders and selfish and slavish followers.

Undermining bureaucracy to save corrupt politicians: Is our prime minister a sociopath?

Following report is from Times of India. The irony cannot be more stark. The Prime Minister who presided over all scams is safe. Those officials who wanted to streamline governance are charged with corruption. It will be interesting if a psychologist would study the sociopathic tendencies of our P.M.

Coalgate FIR: Bureaucracy shocked by action against 'honest' officer

TNN | Oct 16, 2013, 03.03 AM IST

READ MORE PC Parakh|Dasari Narayana Rao|Coalgate FIR|Coal Scam

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NEW DELHI: The irony couldn't be starker. Booked for corruption in a Coalgate case, former coal secretary PC Parakh had strongly protested to the Prime Minister against political interference in the coal ministry.

Sources familiar with events said Parakh, coal secretary in 2004-05, referring to the intrusive role of then minister of state for coal Dasari Narayana Rao, had explained the morale of officials was adversely affected by Rao's actions.

A concerned PM is understood to have assured Parakh that he would speak to officials to reassure them and dissuaded the senior bureaucrat from putting in his papers.

On Tuesday, as word of the CBI filing a case against Parakh spread, officials were shaking their heads in disbelief. While serving officers would not go on record, former power secretary E A S Sarma told ToI, "It is indeed a sad commentary for an FIR being filed against an upright and honest officer like P C Parakh."

Sarma added that he is waiting for action against PMO for its role in Coalgate. "I made a formal complaint to CVC last year and earlier that PMO's role in Coalgate and other scams should be investigated. I do not find any visible action on that complaint so far," he said.

Sarma said there are senior politicians involved in Coalgate and none has so far been proceeded against. Proceeding against honest officers and letting off dishonest politicians will only erode the credibility of the government.

Furious emails were exchanged as bureaucrats recalled that Parakh had first blown the whistle on a likely scandal in coal block allocations by warning in July 2004 that award of captive coal blocks could result in "windfall profits" for benefitted corporates.

Just like Pararkh, his predecessor in the coal ministry H C Gupta is also facing an investigation. Gupta strongly amplified Parakh's warnings, saying in a meeting held in PMO on April 7, 2006, that there is no legal basis for allocation of coal blocks by a screening committee.

The case of Shyamal Ghosh, a former telecom secretary, is also spoken of among officials as being made a victim of political score settling between the UPA government and BJP. Ghosh has been booked in a case relating to fees being waived off when the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan was telecom minister.

Officials point to demoralization in the bureaucracy due to alleged witch hunts. "An honest officer under investigation for no fault of his feels diminished. The crooks don't get caught, but the diligent officer feels double the distress," said a bureaucrat.

He said Parakh has been targeted while "others are not being proceeded against. I understand that he was the one who put his foot down on the first-come-first-served method of coal block allocation and expressed himself firmly in favour of a transparent, auction system. He was overruled."

Sarma said there are senior politicians involved in coalgate and none has so far been proceeded against. Proceeding against honest officers and letting off dishonest politicians, corporates and officers will only erode the credibility of the government which has diminished a great deal during the recent times.