BJP firm on summoning PM, PC before JPC

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday remained firm on its demand that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram be summoned before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigating the 2G scam.

“There will be no compromise on our demand to summon Prime Minister and Finance Minister. It is extremely necessary to call them as witnesses in order to conduct a fair and effective probe into the matter,” senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said.

The Congress members at the JPC meeting on Wednesday had rejected the suggestion of summoning Singh and Chidambaram before the JPC and said there was no need to examine more witnesses and the probe should be concluded, Sinha said  “They said Prime Minister and Finance Minister will not appear before the JPC at any cost. If the Manmohan Singh is summoned, the panel will have to summon former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee also,” Sinha said defending BJP's walk out from the JPC meeting on Wednesday.

Sinha said there were enough evidences available in the public domain to indicate the role of Chidambaram in the scam. The evidences also clearly suggest that Manmohan Singh was aware of the irregularities.

"Only Chidambaram can clarify why he finally abandoned the position taken by his Ministry with regard to revision of the entry fee, auction of spectrum up to and beyond 4.4 Mghz and accepted all recommendations of the erstwhile Telecom Minister A Raja in the meeting held with the Prime Minister on July 4. Similarly, only the Prime Minister can clarify why the policies formulated by the Cabinet on October 31, 2003 (during NDA regime) for unified license was not followed up and why he allowed Raja to have his way,” the BJP leader said.

Sinha alleged that the Congress was trying to scuttle the JPC probe, much the same way they hindered the PAC probe into the scam. “They did not allow PAC to come out with its report,” he charged.

He also accused the Congress members in the JPC of resorting to tactics that will delay the probe. “Till date, the JPC has examined just 22 witnesses in 44 sittings since March 201, whereas the PAC, which examined the CAG report, successfully examined 22 witnesses in 18 sittings over only eight months,” he said.