Till Tuesday, Naveen Jindal took advantage of various public events to defend his company Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, and argue the de-merits of a possible de-allocation of coal blocks.

On Wednesday, there was complete silence from the company on the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to de-allocate coal blocks.

At around 5 pm, JSPL’s spokesperson said the company does not want to comment as it is waiting for the Supreme Court order to be made public. However, a copy of the apex court’s order was already up on the official website.

At a coal summit organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Jindal said: “In 1993, the Government invited companies to set up not just coal mines, but also end-use plants which required a lot of investment. This policy was followed by six Governments and various political parties. They are all party to what has happened with the coal block allocations.”

Double whammy

“The whole concept of ₹1.86 lakh-crore revenue loss is notional. What about the taxes that have been paid to the Government by these companies? JSPL has paid ₹20,000 crore of taxes over the last 10-odd years. If the country’s companies are growing then the whole nation will grow. I am talking about these issues frankly because someone needs to have the courage to talk about them openly.”

This courage disappeared on Wednesday even as Jindal’s counterparts from Hindalco and Essar came out in public to share their initial views on the verdict. JSPL will face the double whammy of paying a penalty of over ₹3,000 crore and also bid again for the coal blocks if it wants over ₹50,000 crore of investments to continue operating with captive coal.

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