This news story caught my attention today: CBI court summons Manmohan Singh, accuses him of graft in Coalgate
This story brings to light the stark contradictions of a socialist economy that India is today. As a socialist economy, the government owns all the resources and has freedom to engage in business activity using these resources just like the private businesses. This pits the interests of the government directly against the interests of the private businesses. The upper hand is held by the government in this case.
Where is the middle ground in this dichotomy of protecting self interests where the government can charge spectrum prices to telecom companies that bankrupt them and then give free spectrum to state run corporations like BSNL and MTNL? Did the CBI sue Manmohan Singh's government when it gave free spectrum to BSNL and charged Sunil Mittal's AIRTEL a steep price for the same amount of spectrum?
The allocation of coal blocks allocated for Neyveli Lignite to HINDALCO by the then PM Manmohan Singh should be looked at in this light. Almost all coal blocks were auctioned at a meagre sum of Re. 1 under the guarantee that the corporations who get the coal block rights, will mine them and produce coal. A large majority of these coal block owners sold off the coal blocks for a high price, making a profit and violating the terms of the contract. All the punishment that they got was revocation of their coal blocks. Only a few serious bidders actually had serious intentions of mining and they are now getting court summons.
The allocation of coal blocks to HINDALCO was in no way a loss to Neyveli Lignite since they could have procured coal from other blocks and they never had any supply shortage. Keeping national assets blocked when the economy was going through a coal and power crisis would have amounted to negligence of the economy and would have been punishable. What PM Manmohan Singh did was in the interest of the nation at large. There was a bidding and allocation process followed with due diligence and many unscrupulous bidders took undue advantage of it and were not punished. Why are the innocent being penalized in this case?
Reference Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CBI-court-summons-Manmohan-accuses-him-of-graft-in-Coalgate/articleshow/46533909.cms
This story brings to light the stark contradictions of a socialist economy that India is today. As a socialist economy, the government owns all the resources and has freedom to engage in business activity using these resources just like the private businesses. This pits the interests of the government directly against the interests of the private businesses. The upper hand is held by the government in this case.
Where is the middle ground in this dichotomy of protecting self interests where the government can charge spectrum prices to telecom companies that bankrupt them and then give free spectrum to state run corporations like BSNL and MTNL? Did the CBI sue Manmohan Singh's government when it gave free spectrum to BSNL and charged Sunil Mittal's AIRTEL a steep price for the same amount of spectrum?
The allocation of coal blocks allocated for Neyveli Lignite to HINDALCO by the then PM Manmohan Singh should be looked at in this light. Almost all coal blocks were auctioned at a meagre sum of Re. 1 under the guarantee that the corporations who get the coal block rights, will mine them and produce coal. A large majority of these coal block owners sold off the coal blocks for a high price, making a profit and violating the terms of the contract. All the punishment that they got was revocation of their coal blocks. Only a few serious bidders actually had serious intentions of mining and they are now getting court summons.
The allocation of coal blocks to HINDALCO was in no way a loss to Neyveli Lignite since they could have procured coal from other blocks and they never had any supply shortage. Keeping national assets blocked when the economy was going through a coal and power crisis would have amounted to negligence of the economy and would have been punishable. What PM Manmohan Singh did was in the interest of the nation at large. There was a bidding and allocation process followed with due diligence and many unscrupulous bidders took undue advantage of it and were not punished. Why are the innocent being penalized in this case?
Reference Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CBI-court-summons-Manmohan-accuses-him-of-graft-in-Coalgate/articleshow/46533909.cms
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