The Opposition parties on Wednesday made it clear that they had not dropped their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scam despite the arrest of the former Communications Minister, A. Raja.
The Congress pointedly stated that action had been taken and would continue to be taken as per the law.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party's Arun Jaitley felt that the government had no option as it came under relentless pressure from the Opposition, the courts and public opinion, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi retorted that the BJP was clearly oblivious of the pressure or conscience in relation to corruption charges against its Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.
General secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Prakash Karat hoped the case would be pursued to its logical conclusion “to recover lost revenue” and “uncover the way the whole system was manipulated.”
D. Raja of the CPI viewed Mr. Raja's arrest as “just the beginning” that could “trigger questions” related to the role of previous Telecom Ministers and of the Prime Minister's Office in the scandal.
The BJP lamented that three years were lost without any action despite repeated attempts by the Opposition to draw the government's attention to the wrongful allocation of spectrum in 2007-08.
The Congress, however, viewed Mr. Raja's arrest as indicating the Centre's zero tolerance of corruption. It said the BJP was shouting hoarse but had no intention of doing any cleaning up in its own States.
