Unrelenting on its demand for a JPC probe into 2-G Spectrum scam, Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for giving "repeated clean chits" to former Telecom Minister A Raja and alleged the government was "scared" of embarrassing truths coming out.
At a press conference, NDA working chairman L K Advani attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying he too should be held responsible in the 2-G spectrum allocation scam. "The prime minister gave repeated clean chits to A Raja, the erstwhile Telecom Minister. He turned a deaf ear to the national hue and cry. Parliament first debated this issue in the Rajya Sabha on July 23, 2009," he said. He alleged the government was not agreeing to a JPC presumably because it is "scared of embarrassing truths staring it in the face".
"The government is indifferent to the problem of corruption. And if an allegation is likely to reach a high political office, then they become absolutely adamant," he said. Justifying NDA's insistence on a JPC probe, the senior BJP leader said had the parliamentary stalemate not taken place, Raja would not have resigned.
Advani insisted that though Public Accounts Committee is an important body, it had a limited mandate and hence a JPC probe was needed. He maintained that his colleague and PAC Chairperson Murli Manohar Joshi had been misquoted in a newspaper report on the issue. "The width and magnitude of the matter involved in the 2G spectrum allotment case are far beyond the scope of the Public Accounts Committee. The CAG is an internal auditor of the Government. It raises various accounting and auditing issues. The PAC confines itself to para-wise observations of CAG. It cannot go beyond the issues which were before CAG," he said.
Advani said a large number of these issues are not within the purview of PAC. "Some may overlap with JPC but there is nothing new or extraordinary about the limited overlap between two different parliamentary committees," Advani said. The NDA working chairman also mentioned the alleged role of corporate lobbyists in portfolio allotment. "The 2-G Spectrum allotment scam involves wide ranging issues. Why was it necessary that the Telecommunication portfolio was to be allotted only to DMK? Were corporate interests at play that even within DMK that it was to be allotted only to a particular individual to the exclusion of others?" he said.
Advani also wanted to know if the former Telecom Minister and his associates were in regular touch with corporate lobbyists while formulating the policy for allotment of 2-G Spectrum. "All these happenings are of a nature which vindicate our stand that government is not serious about corruption," Advani said.
Alleging that the government has not been able to explain why it is not agreeing to a JPC, Advani appealed once again through the media that it give its nod to such a probe. NDA, however, indicated that it has no plans to bring a no-confidence motion against the government on the issue.
"2-G scam is a multi-dimensional scam, undermining democracy itself... Business houses talking of composition of the government... in view of this nature... for a thorough probe and to bring all guilty to book, nothing short of a JPC can do justice to the task," Advani said.
Accusing the government of provoking it to bring a no-confidence motion when only year has passed since the Lok Sabha polls, he suggested that such a course of action was not planned, noting that "every MP wants to serve the full term". Besides, he said, he was for a fixed term for legislatures in the country and have also met the Prime Minister and Leader of the Lok Sabha in this regard. "The Government cannot seriously expect the opposition to accept that the CBI and the CVC are the appropriate institutions which are capable of an honest investigation into the monumental 2G spectrum allocation scam", he said.
Noting that the Central Vigilance Commission is the internal vigilance authority of the Government, he said "the appointment of its chief has completely demolished the credibility of the CVC as an institution". "A person chargesheeted in a corruption case, who attempted to deny the CVC and CAG its authority to question the impropriety in the 2G spectrum allotment, was appointed as its head," he alleged.
He said that the opposition was no longer interested in merely talking out the issue and it wants action. "We had to resort to an extraordinary step of a parliamentary stalemate when scam after scam were being pushed under the carpet by the Government."
Replying to a number of queries concerning corruption in the BJP-ruled Karnataka and the allegations against Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, he merely said "we are dealing with it and are confident that we will deal with it... There is no comparison".
"What can we do when we do not have so many corrupt people", he remarked when asked to react to Congress President Sonia Gandhi's poser that when her party was taking action in regard to corruption why the BJP was silent on the Karnataka CM. Advani said that the NDA has decided to launch a "crusade" to mobilise public opinion against corruption. He appealed to other opposition parties which have supported the demand for JPC to join in the endeavour. "Why is the government running scared of a Joint Parliamentary Committee? The committee will be headed by a government nominee," Advani asked and told the Congress-led coalition that the responsibility for the parliamentary stalemate rests squarely on its shoulders.
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