Coalgate: Demand for Manmohan's resignation

''In 1991, India's then Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, chose Dr. Man Mohan Singh as his Finance Minister. As India's Finance Minister at that time, Dr.Singh was the main architect of the new economic policy which revolved around liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. In 1993, Dr. Singh offered to resignation the post of Finance Minister after a Parliamentary Investigation Report criticised his Ministry for not being able to foresee the multimillion securities scandal, which was not accepted by Mr. Narasimha Rao. Critics say that as the Finance Minister during 1991-1996, Dr.Singh did not shine except in faithfully implementing the IMF-dictated policy, i.e. Structural Adjustment Porgramme (SAP). In the 1994 general election the Congress Party emerged as the single largest Party and the new government was formed by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) with the left parties supporting from outside. To the dismay of many senior congressmen, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, the Congress President, chose Dr. Manmohan Singh to lead the Government. With a fractious coalition including the Left parties nobody expected much out of him or the UPA. Despite the strong criticism poor performance by BJP and left front, the Congress Party came as the single largest party in the 2009 General Election. Dr. Singh was again chosen by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi to head the UPA II government. But during his period as Prime Minister, Dr.Singh is reported to have failed to curb various scams, sandals and frauds perpetuated by crony capitalists and greedy bureaucrats. As a result, resources of the country have been looted by crony capitalists with the active support of politicians and connivance of bureaucrats. The country is reported to have lost lakhs of corers of rupees, which could have been used to promote investment and provide welfare measures to the down-trodden people. The complaint is that Dr.Singh has been keeping silence over the organised looting. But many believe that he was not a silent spectator, but an active participant in the scams, particularly in the “coal-gate scam” which has caused a loss of about Rs. 1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer and involved thousands of crores as bribe to politicians and bureaucrats. Reports show that the Prime Minister’s Office has definite role in the scam. Therefore, Dr. Singh has no other go but to resign and face the problem.''
Dr.C.Murukadas, The Times of India, Sep.1, 2012