Agencies/New Delhi

 

A second book published yesterday accuses Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of being weak and unable to stem corruption on his watch, further embarrassing the ruling Congress Party in the midst of a bitter poll campaign.

The new book has been written by India’s former coal secretary P C Parakh who retired in 2005 and was later implicated in the so-called Coalgate scandal related to allocation of mining rights.

Titled Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and Other Truths,” the book says an indecisive Singh overlooked suggestions aimed at making the allocation process transparent.

“Unfortunately the prime minister was not able to control his ministers and my suggestion on coal block allocation was not accepted,” Parakh, the coal ministry’s former top official, said during the launch of his book in New Delhi.

“By continuing to head a government in which he had little political authority, his image has been seriously dented... although he has had a spotless record of personal integrity,” he said.

The Coalgate scandal came to light in 2012 after the government auditor accused the coal ministry of underpricing coalfields and potentially causing losses to the treasury running into billions of dollars back in 2004-2006.

Singh, 81, who retires after this election, has denied any wrongdoing.

Parakh said that Singh, though keen to introduce open bidding, could not tackle resistance from coal ministers in his administration. Parakh said he himself came under pressure from people interested in acquiring coal blocks.

“Pressures come in the form of enticements such as post-retirement assignments, partnership in business, bribery, blackmail or pure intimidation. Pressures also come from friends and relations,” Parakh wrote in the book.

“Some can resist these pressures. Others succumb,” he said, adding that at no time did the Prime Minister’s Office make recommendations or exert pressure in favour of any party.

The prime minister’s media adviser declined to comment on specific allegations in Parakh’s book, and referred to previous comments the prime minister made in parliament.

The media adviser said the government was helping the courts and police in their investigations into the affair, and that there was no case against anyone in the PMO.

Singh has consistently denied his government did anything wrong, blaming the delay in introducing competitive bidding on resistance from coal-rich states ruled by opposition parties.

He has said the findings of the state auditor in the 2012 report were “clearly disputable.”

The new book comes just two days after a controversial book written by an ex-aide to Singh hit the shelves.

Sanjay Baru’s book paints a damning portrait of a premier who was in office but “not in power” - while Sonia Gandhi, party president and standard-bearer of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, called the shots.

In an interview yesterday, he commented on the prime minister’s handling of various scandals under his rule.

“In all these cases he was aware of what was happening, he tried his best given the political limitations,” Baru told TV channel CNN-IBN.

“Given those political limitations, he took the measures he was able to take and what he could not do, he could not do. So it was not as if he was blind.”

The books come as the multi-phase election is in full swing, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) widely tipped to overthrow Congress after polling ends on May 12.

The BJP, led by firebrand Narendra Modi, yesterday lashed out at the Congress leadership for keeping mum despite the serious issues raised in the two books.

“In both the books, the PM is shown as somebody who was not in control. The (Gandhi) family can no longer run away from the responsibility of answering the serious questions raised in the books,” BJP spokeswoman Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters.

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