Govt must retreat on Coalgate: Jaitley

MANGALORE: Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Saturday took on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his defence of Union law minister Ashwani Kumar on the CBI affidavit on Coalgate scam.
Reiterating the demand for removal of Ashwani Kumar, Jaitley dismissed the PM's rejection of the demand in the same breath that the Centre has been vouchsafing the CBI's autonomy.
"This government has several times said the CBI is autonomous and this latest episode proves otherwise.We all had (our) doubts that the (Union) government was seeking information from the premier investigating agency behind the curtains. But the CBI affidavit (on the Coalgate) has made it clear that the government is interfering in its operation in the open," Jaitley told reporters here.
"What we are seeing is the truth on the Coalgate affidavit coming out in fits and starts and the entire picture is yet unclear," he added.
Noting that the logjam in the Parliament over the coal scam and on the JPC report on the 2G scam was entirely the creation of the government, Jaitley said, "the government must retreat. It has been caught red-handed in an attempt to doctor the report given to the Supreme Court," Jaitley said, adding that the Parliament has been paralyzed over two continuous acts where monumental corruption has taken place under the UPA II government.
The JPC investigating the spectrum allocation issue covers up for the whole scam, Jaitley said, adding that the Coalgate investigation by the CBI too is staring in the UPA's face. "Everyone from the Prime Minister's office to the law ministry to the coal ministry seems to have access to the CBI's status report," Jaitley said, adding that the status report was meant to inform the Supreme Court as to what has really happened in the (Coalgate) issue.
Observing that the UPA government was into management of the decline that is taking place, Jaitley said that the government does not have the guts to take the country into confidence over the Chinese intrusion, 19-km inside Indian territory. Pakistan has repeatedly been indulging in acts of provocation despite warnings, Jaitley said, adding that India is in a disturbed neighbourhood. "Even Maldives does not take us seriously now," Jaitley quipped.