The Lok Sabha on Monday adopted the controversial Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on 2G scam amid pandemonium and walkout by the members of the DMK, a former Congress ally.
The JPC report had exonerated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram of any wrongdoing while laying the blame for the spectrum allocation irregularities at the door of former Telecom Minister A. Raja.
The lower house approved the report through a voice vote after Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar rejected requests by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha and CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta to raise objections on violation of certain rules by the committee.
Yashwant Sinha, Harin Pathak (both BJP), Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) and Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool) shouted that the report was a “fraud” on the Constitution.
While rejecting the requests of Sinha and Dasgupta, the Lok Sabha Speaker today said there was no provision in the rules permitting a discussion or raising of objections before presentation of a report which has been duly adopted by a JPC.
“I am, therefore, not inclined to allow any debate or permit raising of objections at the stage of presentation of the report of the joint committee,” said Meira Kumar.
The JPC report, which was adopted by majority of its members on September 27, had disagreed with the Comptroller and Auditor General’s finding that the 2G spectrum allocation scam caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.
Eleven opposition members, including five of BJP and one each of BJD, TMC, CPI, CPI(M), AIADMK and DMK had voted against the JPC report. BJP’s Gopinath Munde had not attended the meeting.
JPC Chairman P.C. Chacko submitted the report on the 2G scam along with six dissenting notes to the Lok Sabha Speaker on October 29.
The JPC took 19 months to inquire into the scam.