In 2014, BJP went to town with the CAG report that alleged irregularities by the Congress-led UPA government. They dubbed it “Coal Scam”. Soon after, scam-tainted Congress-led UPA was voted out. Narendra Modi’s BJP was elected to power with a promise to course correct the old ways.
Ten years later, in a white paper tabled in Parliament last week, the BJP talked how the Modi government took the country from “darkness to light in coal licensing”.
New documents, however, reveal the BJP’s return to the old ways.
The Reporters’ Collective has found, contrary to the white paper claims, 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 – RK Singh and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who at the time of sending the missives were Parliamentarians. The two sent internal letters, seen by The Collective, punching holes in the new coal regime, cautioning how it can lead to scams in future.
Both were later elevated as ministers.
The letters sent to the prime minister and the Union government are being made public for the first time by The Collective. This is arguably the first time in the ten years of the BJP being in power that such prescient warnings by trusted and prominent party members against systemic scams in their own government have emerged.
How did the Modi government respond to these forewarnings? Did the government course correct when the same CAG that had found UPA guilty of wrongdoings, alleged the same against them?
Read this by our member Shreegireesh Jalihal to find out what the two parliamentarians warned about and what did the Coal ministry do next.
Click here to read the full report on our website.