New Delhi: The Congress and the opposition were at daggers drawn yesterday, with the latter demanding the removal of P C Chacko as head of the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) looking into 2G spectrum allocation and the former pressing for debarring three BJP members from voting on its report. Chacko said he wouldn’t budge.
Both sides approached Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and gave signed letters with their demands.
The Congress was surprised when half of the 30 members of the JPC, including arch political rivals, approached Meira Kumar and gave signed letters saying they had no confidence in Chacko.
“Fifteen JPC members have given signed letters to the speaker saying they have no confidence in Chcko,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.
“Chacko’s conduct as chairman has been partial. He has failed in his duty to bring out the truth,” he said.
“I will continue as JPC chief,” Chacko asserted.
The opposition members are angry over the leaked draft report, which has blamed former telecoms minister A Raja for alleged losses in the allocation of 2G spectrum but cleared Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidamabaram of any wrongdoing.
Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury played down the sharp division in the JPC.
“We will cross the bridge when we come to it. Political alignments are part of the political turf,” she said.
But a few hours later, six Congress MPs urged the speaker to remove “three BJP members — Ravi Shankar Prasad, Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh — from the JPC or debar them from voting as they were either telecoms ministers or were part of a group of ministers on the issue during the NDA rule (1998-2004)”.
“There would be a conflict of interest if the report is finalised in their presence,” a Congress MP said.
The Congress, however, got some respite as the JPC meeting to finalise its report was postponed due to the sudden passing away of Trinmool Congress MP Ambica Banerjee.
Congress sources rubbished the opposition’s charge that the government was trying to buy time. “The JPC meet was postponed due to mourning over the Trinamool MPs death,” a minister said.
IANS
