Why did the PMO try a defence that was bound to be exposed within an hour?

Not telling the truth is equal to lying. Not telling the whole truth is also a form of lying. What do you call editing a letter to present a wrong picture that makes you look pure as driven snow?

In my book, that is the worst form of lying and this is what the Prime minister’s Office (PMO) has to done protect the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government in the coal scandal, which looks ten times as bad as the second generation (2G) scam.

The Times of India has reported two days ago that a draft report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had uncovered a Rs10.7 lakh crore scandal in the allocation of coal mining blocks to private and public sector companies. The CAG said if the government had auctioned the blocks, this huge amount would not have accrued as unintended benefits to the companies.

The next day, the PMO released parts of a letter from the CAG, Vinod Rai, to the PM on the Times of the India report. The key sentence, plucked out of context, stressed in the PMO’s press release read as follows:

“….Pursuant to clarification provided by the ministry (of coal) in exit conferences held on 9 February 2012 and 9th March, we have changed our thinking….”

Please note the dots in front of and after the sentence, which indicate that the sentence has been excerpted from Mr Rai’s letter.

The Times of India published the full text of Mr Rai’s letter which gives the correct picture and pins the lie of the PMO.

An earlier draft of the CAG report has used the phrase “windfall gain” while referring to the advantage gained by the companies to whom the coal blocks were allocated.

The relevant part of Mr Rai’s letter to the PMO (this part was left out of the press release) says: “The words ‘windfall gain’ were reproduced in our earlier draft as they were used by the joint secretary/secretary, ministry of coal in their notings. Pursuant to clarification provided by the ministry in exit conferences on 9.2.2012 and 9.3.2012, we have changed our thinking on the expression as in many cases the profits have not even begun to accrue.”

The PMO’s press release gives a clear impression that the CAG has said in the letter that it has changed its thinking on the whole issue of ‘Coalgate’.

But the CAG’s letter says it has changed its thinking only on the phrase “windfall gain”. It says nothing about changing its mind on the whole issue

Liar, liar, pants on fire, as the children’s song goes. And is the prime minister’s nose getting longer, like Pinocchio’s nose in the fairy tale?

No one can understand why the PMO was so amateurish and tried a defence that was bound to be exposed within hours. Is not the prime minister surrounded with intelligent people?

A bit of history needs to be recalled.US president Richard Nixon was impeached solely because he told a lot of lies during the Watergate scandal.

And I must tell you what a wag said yesterday about Coalgate. “Not even toothpaste can remove the coal dust from the UPA’s face”.

(R Vijayaraghavan has been a professional journalist for more than four decades, specialising in finance, business and politics. He conceived and helped to launch Business Line, the financial daily of The Hindu group. He can be contacted at [email protected].)