BJP Men Who Are Now Union Ministers Had Warned Modi Govt of Coal Auction Scams – And Were Ignored

New Delhi: On 8 February, a white paper on the Indian economy was tabled in the parliament in an apparent display of how the Narendra Modi government turned around a mismanaged economy they inherited. In the paper, a section on corruption is dedicated to the Rs. 1.86 trillion coal block allocation scam under the previous Congress-led UPA governments.

The paper claims that the Modi government took the country from “darkness to light in coal licensing” by ensuring “transparent allocation of coal resources” with its coal reforms.

“The coal scam shook the conscience of the nation in 2014,” the paper says.

In 2015, Modi-led BJP government ushered in a new coal auction and allocation regime to distribute more than 200 blocks of coal with over 41 billion tonnes of coal.

The Reporters’ Collective has found, contrary to claims the white paper makes, the Union government received early warnings that its own new coal regime was compromised and “will lead to scams”. These warnings came from two current Union ministers that Prime Minister Modi trusts, who at the time of sending the missives were Parliamentarians – one from the BJP and the other supporting it as an independent.

They cautioned that the “hastily drafted” regulations to distribute India’s coal would allow private companies to rig auctions and corner huge benefits at a cost to the public. Their discreet forewarnings were sent to the then Union Finance minister, Arun Jaitley and the former Coal minister, Piyush Goyal. One of the parliamentarians marked a copy of the letter to Prime Minister Modi as well.

The story was originally published by The Reporters' Collective. Read the full report here.

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