The Congress-BJP tussle over the functioning of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G spectrum allocation precipitated after the BJP stuck to its stand on summoning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram as witnesses.
The BJP walked out of the panel meeting here on Tuesday and accused Chairman P.C Chacko of behaving in a dictatorial manner. Chacko, denying the allegations, said the BJP was trying to scuttle the panel’s functioning for reasons best known to them.
The Congress is opposed to calling the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister before the panel. The party fears that such a move would set a “bad precedence” and would harm the functioning of Parliamentary panels.
The BJP believes that without calling the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, the panel may not be able to reach the right conclusions on the scam involved in 2G spectrum allocations.
“There will not be any meaning in the JPC if the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister are not called,” senior BJP MP Yashwant Sinha said.
The Left parties have also demanded that the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister should appear before the panel. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said the Prime Minister himself has said that he is ready to appear before the panel. “Then why is the Congress blocking him?” he asked.
Chacko, however, said the majority in the panel was against summoning the Prime Minister. “We are yet to take a decision on summoning the Ministers,” he said. There are indications that the panel may not summon the key accused in the case and the former Telecom Minister A. Raja, too.
The BJP members in the panel told reporters that they will apprise their leaders of all that has transpired within the panel and would soon take a decision on whether to continue in the panel.
Subbarao’s deposition
RBI Governor D. Subbarao appeared before the panel and said there could be loss in spectrum sales if procedures were not followed properly. Members asked him why the Finance Ministry did not prevail on the Telecom Ministry on auctioning spectrum.
He is learnt to have told the panel that the Telecom Ministry took the decisions after consulting the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister.
“Subbarao’s statements made it clear that the Prime Minister and Chidambaram and were aware of all the decisions taken. They should be summoned before the JPC,” Yechury said.