Let's not cry over split milk. Just throw it away.

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-buck-stops-here/watch-supreme-court-s-coal-verdict-stain-on-manmohan-s-legacy/335690?hp

It is sad that comments are made without any deep thinking as to (1) why it was done and (2) then why it was continued and (3) what we should do for such things not to happen. For (1) & (2) the answer is solely because of coalition compulsions. PVR's govt was literally a minority govt and he somehow managed by making opposition parties fight with each other and taking the support of one party or the other. Coalgate was the price he paid. Vajpayee also paid the same price for the same reason. The UPA1 & UPA2 had to continue with the polity because they had introduced it originally. About question (3) We have already taken necessary steps as is evident. We now have a govt which has a clear majority in Lok Sabha and will have majority in Rajya Sabha by the time next Assebly elections are over. The second requirement is we should have a PM who is old for the young and young for the old and also totally untainted and well experienced both in politics and in administration. In our PM Modiji we have everything. We have already come across some instances where he had stood against the corrupt. God bless him and let's all support him.

A couple of more thing to say. If the licences issued 20 years before are cancelled now, who will be the loser? Not the companies who got the licences. It will be the shareholders who had no part in its management. Even if the Supreme Court sets of a SIT and fast track court, it will be years before the culprits could be punished. There will be no evidence whatsoever left now after 20 years to punish them beyond doubt. The original perpetrator, i.e. PVT is no more and even The Family came into the picture almost after a decade. Let's not waste our time, money and energy on this.

Secondly, the role of the Supreme Court in this matter. Right or wrong, the original leases were awarded on the basis of certain 'policy'. Is it right that the Supreme Court assumes the right to set up an SIT and then declare all the leases void? I consider it a gross interference with the authority of government. The judiciary had the previous government by its balls or whatever. It had the audacity to do what it pleased with almost mute opposition. The corrupt government, Parliament and politicians could not dare to raise this issue forcefully. In the process SC has established a number of wrong precedents and I wonder if any of the succeeding CJ will have the guts to tell his colleagues that their job is to define and interpret the Constitution and not play for the galleries and media by lording over both Government and the Parliament.  

Thirdly, the office of CAG did not raise this issue on these years. Why? Lack of backbone? Or as our PM points out: "Mera Kya?" and/or "Mujhe Kya?" attitude? Why our Government should follow strictly the 'Seniority' qualification to over ride all other qualification including overall suitability, which is the main reason for such fiascos and because of which the nation is set back by decades? 

Lastly, the Supreme Court brings to the fore again the set back foreign direct investment dried up after Vodaphone fiasco in which law was retrospectively amended by the Government. Now the SC is doing it. The judges who felt the responsibility to take up the investigation by themselves of the CAG report, might try to justify what they did by contending that it was in the larger national interest. Did not the same 'national interest' tell them not to declare the leases defunct which is unlikely to make any difference to the lessees?

There is still time to correct itself for the Supreme Court. I hope wiser counsel will prevail.