Opposition demands the dismissal of JPC chief

IANS/New DelhI

Though the meeting of the JPC to finalise the draft report was postponed following the death of Trinamool Congress’s Lok Sabha MP Ambica Banerjee, opposition members went ahead with their appointment with the speaker.

The 30-member JPC, which is divided over the content of the report, was expected to meet at 3pm yesterday.

The BJP and Left have come together on one platform to seek rejection of the report. Non-Congress members of the panel met the Lok Sabha speaker at her residence to press for Chacko’s removal.

“This is the biggest scam of independent India and the government is not speaking on it. If (former telecom minister A) Raja says the prime minister was in the know... then he (prime minister) should answer,” said deputy leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Prasad said they had submitted a memorandum to the speaker seeking removal of Chacko.

“We want his removal to ensure that neutrality and integrity of the JPC is maintained,” he said.

“We demand total rejection of the report which is based on lies and is full of contradictions. We cannot accept it,” BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said.

Instead of blaming the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the report points fingers at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, which brought the telecom revolution, Sinha said.

“The JPC for the last two years was working on the report and I didn’t imagine he will go to this extent. Instead of blaming UPA, he is blaming NDA for the multi-crore scam,” Sinha said, referring to Chacko.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury said Chacko had lost the confidence of JPC members.

“This is a report not acceptable to us and the manner in which the report was circulated and leaked is not acceptable. The chairman (Chacko) has acted in an improper fashion and has lost the confidence of committee members,” Yechury said.

The Congress core group met yesterday to discuss the issue. In attendance were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Defence Minister A K Antony, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath.

The draft JPC report had laid the blame for the losses to the public exchequer due to faulty allocation of second generation (2G) spectrum and grant of licences on former telecom minister Raja, clearing Singh and Chidambaram of any wrongdoing.

Earlier, Chacko urged all members of the JPC to “adopt the report without voting.”

“I do not want a voting to take place in the committee and I would request the committee to adopt the report without voting. Those who have different opinion can add dissent note,” Chacko said.

“There is no harm in adopting the report unanimously and I will try for that and if members suggest otherwise, I don’t know what will happen,” he said.

The JPC is divided over the culpability of Raja, whose note submitted to the panel has stated that everything he did was with the knowledge of the prime minister.

In 2011, an entire winter session of parliament was washed out as the BJP did not allow either house to run till a JPC probe was set up.

The issue came up after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) alleged a presumptive loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore ($39bn) in the allocation of 2G spectrum licences during the UPA government’s first term from 2004 to 2009.