The Congress organised a detailed briefing to some 120 party MPs on the allocation of the coal blocks that have come under the critical audit of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and elaborated on the PM's statement in parliament to empower them with talking points to take on the BJP's anti-government propaganda.

The briefing was done by finance minister P Chidambaram, coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation on Monday in what was the second in the series of interactions organised on behalf of the Congress by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies. Congress MP Girija Vyas coordinated the meeting.

The MPs were told that they are being armed with all the facts as they should be at their command to counter the BJP's false propaganda, but also strictly warned that the matters discussed in the meeting should not be leaked to the media.

They were asked to use the information and material provided to them in explaining what Chidambaram described as "real facts" whenever they get opportunity in group discussions and interaction with the media.

The interactions are being organised since last week after a number of party MPs complained to Congress president Sonia Gandhi that many times they are at sea when the Opposition rakes up some issue as they do not know what is the policy of the government and the Congress.

She was, however, unhappy at the thin attendance in the first lecture on the state of economy by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and as such the party managers in the party and parliament ensured that the auditorium is filled up with sufficient number of the MPs.

Also, unlike a fight breaking out between the group of MPs and party office-bearers in the last meeting over Ahluwalia wanting them to lobby in parliament them for reduction and then abolition of all subsidies if the growth momentum is to be kept up lest India ends up like Italy and Greece, the MPs coming out of the meeting said they were quite enlightened to learn about many aspects of the coal mining they did not know.

For instance, the UPA government is being accused of getting "mota maal" for the Congress by giving licences of mining in 57 blocks by the BJP that forgets that its NDA government too had allocated 36 blocks under the same policy in vogue since 1993, Chidambaram pointed out. While he put all issues in proper perspective, the initial presentation was given by coal minister on how the private companies are selected for the captive coal blocks to meet requirements of their power, cement and steel plants.

A party MP said Chidambaram was superb in explaining why the BJP will never agree for discussion on the issue in Parliament and pointing out that the government has already got support of all opposition parties barring BJP and Shiv Sena for a discussion on the PM's statement. Though the controversial CAG report on the assumptive loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crores may be referred in any such discussion, Bansal explained that the debate on the CAG report can take place only after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has scrutinised and presented its report to Parliament.

Bansal was reported to have also shared with the party MPs the government's strategy to push two or three Bills even if the BJP continues pandemonium on every day of the remainder of the session that is to end on September 7. He has already listed 11 Bills for consideration and passage during the next four days of sittings this week. So as to get support of the non-BJP parties to push the government agenda, some of the controversial Bills may be put on the back-burner, he added.