BJP parliamentary party chairman L.K. Advani on Thursday announced a public campaign against corruption but he dismissed charges of nepotism and corruption against Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa saying: “I am concerned, we are already dealing with it … our party spokesperson has already answered questions [in this regard].”
Sitting next to National Democratic Alliance convener Sharad Yadav and leaders of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, Mr. Advani said here that all NDA parties would jointly organise a “series of rallies” in major cities to focus on corruption and “all Opposition parties are invited.” No dates were given.
Although the Left has taken the lead in putting together a group of non-Congress and non-BJP parties on this very issue — they submitted a memorandum to the President a couple of days ago — the BJP's effort is to bring on the NDA platform some parties which are not part of the alliance. In fact, a few days ago Mr. Jaitley expressed the hope that the good electoral results in Bihar would encourage expansion of the NDA ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Advani went through the gamut of issues in the 2G spectrum scandal: the Comptroller and Auditor-General's report that spoke of a huge potential loss to the exchequer in the award of telecom licences and allocation of spectrum; the appointment of a chargesheeted Chief Vigilance Commissioner, who has now recused himself from the probe as he was the Telecom Secretary at the time of spectrum allocation; and the latest Radia tapes that revealed the functioning of lobbyists, on behalf of powerful business houses, in trying to fix a Cabinet position for a particular person.
Dangerous dimensions
Mr. Advani pointed out that although the Public Accounts Committee would, no doubt, look at the CAG report in detail, it was not equipped to probe the dangerous dimensions of the scandal that emerged from the Radia tapes. The Joint Parliamentary Committee, demanded by the Opposition, was the right body to go into all these aspects.
Asked whether the deadlock in Parliament, over the Opposition demand and the government's flat refusal, would extend to the budget session, Mr. Advani said it would depend on how the government acted. The Opposition, he said, was sad Parliament had not functioned normally but it would help to make good lost time if the government acceded to the JPC demand.
Mr. Advani shrugged off questions on allegations of corruption against Mr. Yeddyurappa and the dissatisfaction expressed by the Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde with the response he had received from the State government to his queries on illegal mining, the role of some Ministers and the charges against the Chief Minister himself.
When Mr. Yadav was asked whether he was satisfied with the steps taken by the BJP against corruption in Karnataka, he simply walked away.
