Protest Over Coal Spills Onto India\'s Streets

By HARI KUMAR

A political fight over one of India's most important natural resources, coal, spilled out of Parliament on Friday and onto the streets.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., the principal opposition to India's Congress-led government, held a protest in Delhi and said they will hold dozens more around the country on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Other opposition groups, including the leftist parties and the Samajwadi Party, had a sit-in at the gate of India's Parliament building on Friday.

The government's ruling coalition has been the target of fierce criticism over alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks, which one investigation said cost the government nearly $34 billion in lost revenue. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Congress Party leaders deny the accusations. Debate over the issue has paralyzed Parliament and brought law-making to a halt in New Delhi.

B.J.P. leaders are demanding the resignation of the prime minister and say they will not allow Parliament to function until then. Other opposition parties are calling for an investigation into the coal block allocation by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Parliament was disrupted Friday for the ninth day in a row and adjourned until Monday.

During the protest at the Parliament building gate, opposition politicians shouted slogans, demanding a judicial probe into the coal block allocation. Mulayam Singh Yadav, the president of the Samajwadi Party, protested for one hour, then announced, “Our demand is that a sitting judge of the Supreme Court should investigate the coal scam. If it is not done, we will protest throughout the country.”

Mr. Yadav's party won a major victory in state polls earlier this year in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. His party is expected to play a major role in the next national elec tion, due in 2014.

Leaders of the B.J.P. addressed a crowd of a few hundred people who had gathered at a separate protest venue in New Delhi. Leader after leader narrated a long list of corruption scandals and their estimated monetary value.

Protestors shouted slogans like “Koyala choro gaddi choro” (“Coal thieves, leave the chair”) and “Koyale ki dalali me pradhanmantri ka muh kala” (“The prime minister's face is blackened in the coal scam”).

Anurag Thakur, the head of the B.J.P.'s youth wing, promised that “the coal scam will be the last nail in the coffin of Congress.”