HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday forcefully defended his government's decision not to auction coal blocks, arguing that doing so would have pushed the price of the crucial mineral too high for many industries. It turns out that his Congress colleague and then minister of state for coal Dasari Narayana Rao had told Parliament way back in November 2007 that bidding was unlikely to increase the cost of coal in comparison to notified price of Coal India Limited.