NEW DELHI, October 31: With the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on 2G spectrum allocation now submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, another round of political controversy has begun, with Communist Party of India MP Gurudas Dasgupta accusing the Congress’ P.C. Chacko of acting in a “partisan manner” as the committee head.
Mr. Dasgupta told The Hindu that a united Opposition would once again raise the issue in Parliament with “renewed vigour,” clearly indicating that this chapter is still far from over.
Mr. Dasgupta, who was part of the JPC and submitted his detailed dissent note to the committee, faulted Mr. Chacko for giving a “clean chit” to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Despite clinching evidence that Dr. Singh was fully aware of all the wrongdoing in the grant of telecom licences in 2008 by the then Telecom Minister, A. Raja, the JPC turned a blind eye to all these facts and ignored the objections of other members, he said.
PM could have averted massive loss
While accusing Congress MP P.C. Chacko of acting in a “partisan manner” as the parliamentary committee head, Mr. Dasgupta rubbished the contention that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was “misled” by “political novice” Raja as “childish.”
Mr. Dasgupta said there was clear evidence that Dr. Singh could have averted a massive loss to the exchequer that eventually led to private companies making windfall profits. “The Prime Minister cannot be absolved of the serious charge of dereliction of duty… Dr. Singh had only pretended to remain at arm’s length because he preferred not to displease the DMK, the coalition partner in the Congress-led UPA-I, and [to] remain in office rather than acting decisively to prevent irregularity that had caused dastardly damage to the country, financially and politically.”
Mr. Dasgupta criticised Mr. Chacko for “deliberately disapproving” of constitutional status of the Comptroller and Auditor General, and questioned the “zero loss” theory propagated in the JPC report. “Even the CBI has said that there was at least Rs.30,000- crore loss to the exchequer due to fraud in allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum in 2008… And if there was no loss, then why was the JPC formed in the first place? Mr. Chacko turned the entire JPC into a disaster by crafting a report that will weaken the case,” he said.
Mr. Dasgupta has now authored a 58-page document titled “Great betrayal by the JPC on 2G spectrum scam” and three lakh copies will be distributed across the country.
