Ten non-BJP opposition parties on Tuesday put the onus on the UPA to end the impasse in Parliament by constituting a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam.
Top leaders of the 10 parties — the CPI(M), the CPI, the TDP, the JD(S), the AIADMK, the MDMK, the AGP, the Forward Bloc, the BJD and the RLD — met in New Delhi on Tuesday evening to formulate a “common strategy to tackle” the UPA on the issue as the government decided against constituting a JPC.
“It is indeed unfortunate that Parliament could not transact any business so far in the winter session.
The UPA and its leader, the Congress, are responsible for this by their refusal to appoint a JPC to probe the massive 2G spectrum scam,” CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury told reporters in New Delhi after the meeting.
Terming the scam as the “single largest corruption scandal in independent India,” he said JPCs were constituted earlier on corruption scams of smaller dimensions.
“Apart from identifying and nailing the guilty, it is necessary to identify how the system could be so manipulated to result in such a massive scam. Further, on this basis it is necessary to suggest reforms and regulations for the future including for new legislation if necessary.
“These two objectives cannot be accomplished by any other Parliamentary Committee like the Public Accounts Committee but only by a JPC. The UPA government must end the present Parliamentary impasse by constituting a JPC,” he said elaborating on the views of leaders at the meeting.
Besides Mr. Yechury, the other leaders who attended the meeting included Prakash Karat (CPI(M)), Chandrababu Naidu (TDP), Sudhakar Reddy and D. Raja (CPI), H.D. Deve Gowda and H.D. Kumaraswamy (JD(S)), M. Thambi Durai (AIADMK), B.P. Baishaya (AGP), D. Deverajan and Barun Mukherjee (Forward Bloc), Arjun Charan Shetty (BJD), Gunasekhar (MDMK) and Jayant Choudhury (RLD).
Asked whether the SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD’s Lalu Prasad were invited, Mr. Naidu said he had spoken to Mr. Yadav and he conveyed his inability to attend Tuesday’s meeting.
“I have not spoken to Lalu Prasad as he is busy with elections in Bihar. I have not contacted (BSP’s) Mayawati,” he said.
Mr. Yechury said the leaders expressed “deep anguish and concern at the exponentially growing” cases of corruption in the country like the Commonwealth Games scam and the Adarsh housing scam.
“Likewise, the cases of illegal mining and land grabbing in states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka need to be probed and political leadership must be made accountable,” he said.
