Even as an unrelenting Opposition held up all parliamentary business for the fifth day on Thursday, the Congress leadership still remained unwilling to concede its JPC demand on the 2G spectrum allocation issue, with senior party sources saying “ statusquo ” continued. If there was any change in the party line, the sources added, it could come only be after discussions with allies in the United Progressive Alliance.
However, the sense emerging from within the government was that if it was forced to consider a Joint Parliamentary Committee, it will be with a proviso — that the JPC examine the conduct of all Telecom Ministers from the 1990s so that the role of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government between 1998 and 2004 will also come under the scanner, and the probe will not be not Raja-centric.
“If the government changes its mind on the JPC, it will begin negotiations with the Opposition, by laying down that it will go back to at least 1998,” government sources told The Hindu .
It was against this background that the Congress Core Group, headed by party president Sonia Gandhi, met here at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's 7 Race Course Road residence in the afternoon.
Those who attended the crucial meeting included Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Ms. Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel. A special invitee was Kapil Sibal, who has been given additional charge of the Telecom Ministry after A. Raja was forced to quit on Sunday night.
Wait for judgment
Earlier in the day, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said the Opposition should wait until the Supreme Court ruled on the issue: “We all know that courts speak through their judgments. Let us see what the judgement is.”
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan — till recently Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office — strongly backed his former boss, who has been dragged into the 2G Spectrum allocation controversy after the court on Tuesday made observations on the delay in his sanctioning the prosecution of Mr. Raja.
“You can rest assured that the Prime Minister stands for probity, transparency and if he finds any wrongdoing anywhere, he will not spare anyone,” Mr. Chavan, who was in the capital earlier in the day on Thursday, told journalists.
“No strictures”
Simultaneously, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari, saying the court's remarks could by no stretch of the imagination be described as “strictures,” sought to change the direction of the accusations coming thick and fast from the Opposition.
Referring to BJP leader L.K. Advani's statement that it was the first time that the Supreme Court had made such observations about the Prime Minister or the PMO, Mr. Tewari said: “When M.K. Bezbaruah was Director of the Enforcement Directorate and he was transferred, the Supreme Court made quite an observation. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister then. Subsequently, that transfer was reversed.”
Mr. Tewari said it was ironic that the BJP was “preaching morality” when the entire Council of Ministers in the party ruled Karnataka was part of a “land mafia.”
“The BJP has been disrupting Parliament from day one of the session to cover up the acts of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, the controversial Reddy brothers, Sudhanshu Mittal and Sancheti.”
