Coal scam: Twitterati laud Manmohan Singh’s honesty

Twitter on Tuesday lauded the “honesty” of former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a day after a special court in Delhi convicted a former coal secretary and two other bureaucrats for irregularities in allocating a coal block in Madhya Pradesh.

In what is being hailed as a major victory for the Congress leadership during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) II regime, the special court observed that HC Gupta, the coal secretary under Singh, had made “dishonest misrepresentation” before the then Prime Minister, who had retained the Coal Ministry portfolio.

Along with Gupta, two serving senior officials were convicted by the court, almost five years after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a chargesheet detailing alleged irregularities in coal block allocations.

While the special court that’s hearing the case had already awarded a “clean chit” to Singh in September 2015, its observations on Tuesday regarding Singh being misled by his bureaucrats further reinforced the public image of Manmohan Singh as a “clean politician.”

“#ManmohonestSingh” was trending on Twitter on Tuesday, with many users weighing in on what they thought about the former PM.

With PTI inputs