The CoalGate : Our nation's shot to shame

‘The Coal-gate scam’ clearly shows our nation’s shot to shame. It has already been termed as the mother of all scams, as the black money involved here has swallowed all the other previous scams.

What has happened actually?

The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General, an authority established by the Govt. of India, who audits all the receipts and expenditures by the central government as well as the state governments) of India, has accused the Government of India for illegally and irregularly providing our nation’s coal deposits to private and state run entities instead of auctioning them in the public. And this has resulted a loss of a whopping 1,86,000 crore rupees to our national treasury in the period 2004 – 2009. There have been estimates released by the media that the actual loss was 10,60,000 crore rupees.  And what is more sickening is, in that period of five years, all the major coal dealings in the country went right under the nose of our Prime Minister.

What is actually the problem? What is happening in the central level?

Our prime minister is inefficient. He has been the play-toy in the hands of the UPA members, especially in the hands of Sonia Gandhi. There have been a number of scams being uprooted in the past couple of years, and all our government says is that it condemns and strict action would be taken. And then, the same routine which our so called leaders follow – eat the nation’s money and pride, rip off its reputation and rape it.

It has been in the news that in this five year period (2004-2009), 142 coal fields were illegally allotted to the private and state run entities, instead of being auctioned. Yes, they are ‘Coal Fields’. One of the richest natural resources of our nation; which, now has landed in the hands of the corrupt leaders.

Earlier this year, our Prime Minister had made a public statement that he would hang his life if found guilty in the Coal Scandal. But reports say, that the coal scam had come out in such a way, that it indirectly benefits the PM himself, and at the same time keeps him floating on safe waters; i.e, he won’t be proved guilty, but he would be enjoying the scam share. The 75 year old crusader, Anna Hazare too has been stressing on the same words.

It has been very much evident that our leaders never encourage development or focus on issues like eradicating corruption, which has been tearing off the dignity of our nation. Our leaders don’t want a clean government or a clean nation. In their eyes, social activists and crusaders are evil minds. They have been so lost in the luxury of money and power, that they don’t bother to even ravage our nation and kill its honour.

 The political reaction

The Coal-gate had given BJP a chance for a straight hit onto the Prime Minister. The party had stalled both the houses of Parliament this morning and forced an adjournment. The BJP leaders had strongly put that they are least caring about the PM’s statement on the scandal, and want him to quit.

How is the common man affected?

Coal mines are the gold mines of our nation. Coal amounts to 56 percent of electricity production in our country. In the December of 2011, over 300 million Indian citizens lacked access to electricity. To add to the bitterness, over one third of our country’s rural population sunk in blackouts, and so did 6 percent of the urban populace. All this had badly disturbed irrigation and the manufacturing processed across the length and breadth of the country. What is more painful is, despite our country being the fourth largest energy consumer after USA, China and Russia, it presently suffers from acute shortage of electricity generation. The IEA (International Energy Agency) had drawn out estimates and stated that India needs an investment of around $135 billion in order to provide 24/7 power supply to its entire population of 1.2 billion. Yes, $135 billion, still less than the loss acquired because of the Coal scam.

Let’s question ourselves once. Shouldn’t these leaders be kicked out of our nation?