CBI Interrogation: Manmohan Singh's Moment of Infamy

According to reports in the press, the CBI on Sunday examined former Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh in relation to the allocation of a coal block in Orissa to Hindalco in 2005.

Why was Manmohan Singh questioned?

In a 2012 report, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) estimated that the governments decision to allocate coal blocks instead of auctioning them resulted in an estimates loss of 1.86 lakh crore to the state exchequer. This report was the beginning of the ‘Coalgate’ story.

On September 24, 2014, the Supreme Court cancelled the allocations of 214 of the 218 coal blocks given by the central government between 1993 and 2010. The court ruled that the concerned allocations were arbitrary and illegal. Importantly, out of those 218, 155 were allocated between 2004 and 2009, when Manmohan Singh was in charge of the Coal Ministry.

The investigation of it by the CBI and the hearing of the case by the apex court revealed even more uncomfortable details. In an affidavit submitted to the court in May 2013, the agency stated that its report on the coal scam had been seen by the then Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, the Attorney General, and most importantly, officials of the PMO. Worse, the affidavit stated that all the named parties, including the PMO officials, had sought changes to the report. Later, reports emerged which mentioned their ‘sources’ saying that the Law Minister had indeed seen the report but only to suggest grammatical changes.

This examination of the former PM on Sunday comes after a stern view of a special court hearing the ‘Coalgate’ cases. For the Hindalco allocation in particular, the court asked the CBI, on November 25th of last year, that why it hadn’t questioned Manmohan Singh up till then. In December, the court rejected the closure report of the CBI and ordered it to record the statements of Dr.Singh and file a status report by January 27. The court had also observed that there were efforts made to “manipulate the entire government machinery” for providing benefits to Hindalco. It is in following of the same order that the CBI questioned Dr.Singh on January 18th.

How did the Congress react to it?

Interestingly, till the time of publication, Dr.Singh had not officially confirmed to the press that he had been questioned on Sunday. The confirmation came from the party instead. “I think it is much to be appreciated that like a responsible citizen and like somebody who is fully willing to cooperate, he answered those questions, no delay, no obstruction”, said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi. That immediately leads one to ask that if indeed it was only a responsible discharge of the duties of citizenship, and that in giving himself to scrutiny he was only respecting the court, then why couldn’t Dr.Singh himself at least confirm it? The current scenario leads one back to April-May 2013, when there were reports of differences between the Prime Minister and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

The events of Sunday have refreshed the memory of Congress’ stance on the issue during the UPA days. It is well known that of the 214 allocations deemed illegal by the apex court, a 155 were done when Manmohan Singh himself held the coal portfolio. Back then, the main argument of the Congress was two-fold. Firstly they argued that the entire process went wrong because of state governments and second, they said that it was imprudent to think that the Prime Minister of the country studies each and every file that comes to him. 

We still await the status report of the CBI on January 27. It is likely that at the end of it all, no personal charge of corruption against Dr.Singh holds. But in a modern democracy, and in a case like the coal scam, a former prime minister cannot claim innocence of the basis of ‘it-was-not-me-but-others’.