Senior officials of the Union Finance Ministry tried on Monday to wriggle out of the trouble stemming from their failure to furnish the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) with the March 25 office memorandum on the 2G spectrum allocation sent to the Prime Minister's Office, saying it contained “no new information.”
But the committee was not impressed with their explanation.
Appearing before the JPC, charged with looking into the telecom policies adopted from 1998 to 2009, R. Gopalan, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, maintained that the Ministry did not deem it necessary to provide a copy of the note to the committee, as it was a mere background paper, which was an ex-post facto compilation of basic facts on the case.
The office memorandum, which came to light following an application under the Right to Information Act, suggested that had Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram (then Finance Minister) “stuck to his guns,” the spectrum would have been auctioned and not sold in 2008 at the 2001 prices.
Prepared by an official in the Finance Ministry and sent to the PMO, the office memorandum acquired weight because of the marking on the top that it was ‘seen' by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The controversy trigged a storm within the government amid vociferous demands by the Opposition for the resignation of Mr. Chidambaram.
The crisis blew over after Mr. Mukherjee said in the presence of Mr. Chidambaram that he did not share the comment on his Cabinet colleague contained in the memorandum.
At the last meeting, furious members of the JPC had directed Finance Secretary R.S. Gujral and Mr. Gopalan to appear before the committee. Far from satisfying the committee with their version, the officials appeared on Monday to have tied themselves in knots with their explanation.
Members pointed to the annexure to the office memorandum, which refers to some correspondence and information in the official files, on the basis of which it was prepared, and wanted to know why all information referred to in the annexure was not placed before the committee.
After directing the Finance Ministry to submit all information figuring in the annexure, the committee asked the officials to appear before it again on November 15. “We have not yet gone into the merits of the information in the note. Our focus at today's meeting was on the failure of the Ministry to furnish [the JPC with] the note. We are not satisfied with the officials' explanation. We would take a view on further course of action after the next meeting,” JPC chairperson P.C. Chacko told journalists here.
At the last meeting, the JPC also directed all government departments and agencies concerned to file an affidavit affirming that all relevant papers on the telecom policy covered by the terms of reference of the committee were placed before it. Among those who had to comply with the directive included the PMO, the Cabinet Secretariat, the Finance Ministry and the Department of Telecommunications.
Mr. Chacko said the Finance Ministry had conveyed to the committee that all relevant documents pertaining to the 2G issue would be submitted.
