Budget session of Parliament resumes; government faces heat on 2G, coal scam

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today appealed for the "House to function smoothly" ahead of the resumption of the Budget session. Earlier, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had warned that "the session will restart on a note of confrontation, not consensus".  

The Opposition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be looking to corner the government over what it calls the "deliberate leak" of a draft report prepared by the Joint Parliamentary Committee studying the 2G spectrum scam.

The panel headed by Congress leader PC Chacko has given Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram a clean chit, while indicting former Telecom Minister A Raja for the massive swindle pegged at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Mr Raja is accused of masterminding the scam by allowing ineligible companies to jump to the front of the queue and landing 2G licenses and precious airwaves at throwaway prices.

The Opposition has slammed the report as a "cover-up" by the Congress-led UPA government to save the PM, who Mr Raja claims was "consulted" at every step for the decisions taken.

Speaking to NDTV, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley alleged that the report was "leaked to media as a propaganda material before it reached JPC members." The BJP has also expressed its anger over serious allegations made against former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and former ministers Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie in the report. "Instead of indicting the Manmohan government, it has charged the Vajpayee government... the JPC report has soured relations between the government and the opposition," Mr Jaitley said. (Watch)

The BJP will also be looking at cornering the government over the controversial CBI report on the coal scam which was allegedly vetted and altered by Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and officials in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The Supreme Court has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit a written guarantee by April 25 that the document on coal scan had not been shared with "the political executive."

The report answers questions about how coal fields were allocated to private players between 2006 and 2009. The issue is sensitive for the government because for some of those years, the Prime Minister held charge of the Coal Ministry.

Sources in the PMO have said that the Law Minister did alter the report, but only to correct grammatical mistakes, stressing that the Prime Minister himself was "at no stage asked or involved in the process of consultation."

The government is also likely to face the heat on the brutal rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi last week. While the Prime Minister has expressed concern over the safety of women, the BJP has alleged that rape cases are on the rise because of the insensitivity of the UPA government.

The government needs the Opposition's help in the passage of certain key bills like Food Security, Insurance and Pensions in this session of Parliament which is scheduled to end on May 10.