JOIN US"There is always a charge against us that we are questioning the integrity (of the Prime Minister). What we are questioning is your infallibility and not your integrity. If you have made a mistake, accept it," CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury told reporters.
Yechury quoted an affidavit filed by the Department of Telecommunications in the Supreme Court as saying that "not only was there no difference of opinion with the Hon'ble Prime Minister, his office was also fully kept informed of all decisions".
Copies of portions of the affidavit were circulated at the CPI(M) press conference, along with several letters exchanged between the Prime Minister and former Telecom Minister A Raja on 2G spectrum allocation between 2007 and 2008.
Yechury said it was the government's "own admission, and not an opposition charge and Government itself and the former Minister (A Raja) have dragged the PM's name."
He reiterated the party's demand that the Prime Minister should make a statement in Parliament and accept a joint parliamentary committee probe into the scam.
"We want the JPC to be announced tomorrow. Let the Prime Minister speak and explain, we are ready to hear him. We are talking of a scam which is not a small issue. It could have otherwise created a better India," Yechury said.
The estimated loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore could have "eliminated hunger" through a universal public distribution system and funded universal education throughout the country," he said.
CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, who briefed the press conference on the deliberations of the three-day Central Committee meeting, said, "It is not just a question of one Minister or Ministry. It is very clear that what happened (on the spectrum issue) was known to the Prime Minister, the Finance Ministry, the Law Ministry and the entire government".
He said that was why there was a need to have a JPC probe and there were "much wider ramifications. ... Why this massive loss was allowed to happen? Why was nothing done for full two years".
Karat demanded action against all those guilty, including the "corporates who colluded to deprive the nation".
Responding to Union Minister Kapil Sibal's statement that the 2G licences should not be cancelled, he said the UPA was "willing to condone corporate crime. They are more concerned about scaring investors but not about the huge loss of funds"