New Delhi: After two-and-half years, a parliamentary panel yesterday finally gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram of any wrongdoing while blaming former telecom minister A Raja in the controversial 2G spectrum allocation issue, said informed sources. The opposition cried hoarse over it.
The joint parliamentary committee (JPC) looking into the 2G spectrum allocation adopted its report by a majority vote, its Chairman P C Chacko told reporters but refused to divulge its contents as it is a confidential document.
According to sources, the report also refutes the assessment of the then Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai that losses worth a whopping Rs1.76 lakh crore were incurred in the allocation of these licences.
As parliament is not in session, the report, along with the dissent notes, will be submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar by October-end, said Chacko.
After that, it can be made public, he said. According to Chacko, of the 27 members present and voting, 16 supported the report while 11 opposed it. Three members were absent.
Among those who opposed are members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), Communist Party of India, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Biju Janata Dal.
These members can submit a dissenting note to the chairman by Oct 10, which will be included in the final report.
The BJP and the Left termed it a contrived majority.
BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said the report was based on “wrong facts and falsehoods”.
“A contrived majority has been used unashamedly to adopt a report which is based on wrong facts, falsehoods and prejudicial findings,” he said.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said: “A contrived majority has been used to adopt the report based on false and prejudicial findings and facts.”
“The chairman in his behaviour was extremely pictorial and they had planned everything and on that basis of false majority adopted the report,” he said.
The adoption of the report ends a two-and-a-half year saga of charges and counter charges, boycotts and bickerings since the panel was set up March 4, 2011.
IANS
