New Delhi: Fending off allegations of corruption in allocation of coal blocks, Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday said the decisions taken by the government were transparent and charged the Opposition with "executing" people even before trial.
Retorting to Kiran Bedi's attack on CAG reports on coal blocks, airport and power projects at a seminar, the minister also hit out at the disbanded Team Anna saying that people born from a "special mould" can question others but they themselves were above board and "are not to be questioned".
Defending the government on the CAG reports, Khurshid said the decisions taken were transparent "and will be supported by arguments that we will place before the nation."
He said the opposition parties were "executing" a person without even allowing a "fair trial" to be held. Referring to the decision making process of the government, he said the "theory of honest mistake" should be followed.
"It cannot be that everything done wrong is a criminal offense.... It is very easy to execute on an intuition," he said, adding that his reference to mistakes "is not an alibi for corruption.
Referring to the CAG reports, Bedi said while Delhi Police plans to brainmap Gitika Sharma suicide accused Gopal Kanda, there is no provision to carry out similar tests on people accused in scams. She also displayed the copy of a newspaper with a headline on the CAG's estimate of loss to the exchequer.
In his response, Khurshid said there is somebody in the country who is "above and question. Who will be able to decide what the judges should do, what the Prime Minister should do, because somehow they are born from a special mould...they are not to be questioned..."
Speaking on the occasion, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said perceptions about ineffectiveness of government programmes and poor delivery of services could be removed by design of policies which can increase transparency.
He also said the issue of corruption was causing a lot of concern and that "enormously long" judiciary proceedings were also creating problems for the people.
Earlier in the day, Khurshid told reporters that state governments' recommendations formed the basis of allocation for coal blocks.
"I think, it is not a very reasonable and sensible thing to say. I believe that there is ample transparency in the manner in which coal block allocation happened," Khurshid said reacting to a volley of questions outside Parliament House after a determined opposition stalled the proceedings of both the Houses demanding Prime Minister's resignation over the CAG report on coal block allocation.
"There is an existing system (for coal block allocation). In fact several improvements have been made on that system. The screening committee had participation of state governments. State governments' recommendations formed the basis of allocation for coal blocks," he said.
"...We haven't made a mistake. We have done things in a bonafide manner and to the best of our ability," Khurshid said.
Asked whether the BJP should also do introspection on the issue as there were allegations that the the opposition party-ruled states were in favour of such allocation of coal blocks, Khurshid said, "Now, it has been vindicated that these were decisions that actually emanated from recommendations coming from state governments."
He said resistance to changes in the law for a switch from the screening system to auction system came from state governments and was well documented.
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