*It's a scandal about a monstrous industry that's visibly destroying the atmosphere (and India beneath it), but, well, that's not the part that concerns them.
http://www.tehelka.com/the-good-road-not-taken-2/
"The thick dust of the coal block allocation scam refuses to settle down. After enveloping over a dozen mining companies in its black soot, the coalgate twister threatens to blow away Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the bureaucracy. Last week, all the underlying issues of the coal allocation fiasco came to a flashpoint with the CBI alleging that the Aditya Birla Group was another beneficiary of crony capitalism. With the CBI digging deeper to unravel the corporate-political nexus, all fingers are now pointing at the PM, who was in charge of the coal ministry when the mines in question were allocated to the business houses.
"The past and the present of this case remain murky. Over the past decade, India has been a cauldron of obfuscated rules and regulations, which has resulted in the exploitation of resources of all kinds, from 2G spectrum to coal, with little transparency and no auctions. This cross-stitch of situations opened up opportunities for misuse. Politicians exerted power, bureaucrats displayed control and industrialists tried to influence decisions to get resources their way.
"The loopholes in the system meant that apart from bona fide companies, which had the necessary expertise in sectors where auctions were held, fly -by- night operators also managed to lay their hands on scarce resources...."
