Auction dilemma

While speaking at the fourth India Minerals and Metals Forum in Delhi, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup spit fire at certain companies for creating problems in the coal auction. He said some over-enthusiastic companies chose to dig their own graves by bidding heavily. "Then, they blamed the government, as we all do when something goes wrong," he said. He told the audience that people asked him why he did not stop those companies. "If I stopped people from bidding higher or lower, as the case might have been, I would be addressing all of you from Tihar jail, not this place," he said, leaving the audience in splits.