P.C. Chacko, chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the 2G spectrum allocation scam on Saturday said “it’s not inevitable” to call former Telecom Minister A. Raja, before the panel as a witness as all main witnesses had been called and evidence taken.
“It is not inevitable at this juncture to call Raja as all main witnesses have been called and evidence taken,” he said.
He was responding to a query on CPI leader and JPC member Gurudas Dasgupta’s letter to him stressing the need to call Mr. Raja as witness.
Mr. Chacko said Mr. Raja had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to allow him tender evidence as witness before the JPC.
Several other persons have also expressed a similar desire but it was impractical to call all of them, he said.
“A final decision, however, in this regard will be taken after discussing it with all JPC members,” Mr. Chacko told PTI.
On February 22, Mr. Raja had written to Ms. Kumar and Mr. Chacko expressing willingness to appear before JPC as witness. He claimed he has been “condemned unheard” in the 2G scam case and wanted to present his side of the story.
Mr. Chacko said the JPC had asked to prepare the draft report which would be ready by the first week of May. Thereafter a JPC meeting would be convened to finalise it and the report would have to be submitted before the end of the current Parliament session on May 22, he said.
On Mr. Dasgupta’s contention that Mr. Raja’s name was there in the list of witnesses prepared, Mr. Chacko said it was not correct as no final list of witnesses had been prepared.
All members had given a list of witnesses to be called before JPC and no final list was prepared by the JPC, Mr. Chacko said.
DMK members in the JPC T.R. Baalu and Tiruchi Siva have been pressing Mr. Chacko to call Mr. Raja as a witness.
However, Congress members in the JPC are against calling Mr. Raja as witness as his deposition could be used by the Opposition, including the BJP and the Left, to corner the government.
Keywords: 2G spectrum scandal, 2G spectrum case, JPC probe, A. Raja, P.C. Chacko
This is a very curious case, a body which is setup to investigate a scam. And the mastermind is not being allowed to depose before it and give evidence. Really how can they justify that? such is the way of life. And i am sure Media is going to soft peddle this issue....enjoy the show.
Mr. Chacko instead of denying Mr. Raja opportunity to appear before the JPC by using jargons would do well to grant his request for doing the same, and include his testimony to provide as much authenticity to the preparation of its report bearing wider ramifications. Meeting of the time deadline should not be at the cost of submitting a report that is not beyond suspicion. Other witnesses may or may not warrant their testifying, but Mr. Raja, being the main accused, certainly does. The report has to be impartial and should not appear to be even bleakly supporting any party, much less the ruling party.
The Opposition's clamor for appointment of JPC was ignored by Congress but later acceded.Cleverly Chacko was appointed as Chairman to ensure that the matter was scuttled and buried deep.With Raja now insisting that he wants to depose,Chacko the loyal congressman that he is,now says that it is not inevitable to call Raja as a witness.It is very obvious why he doesn't want Raja
to be called because the Cat Will Be Out Of The Bag.This ploy should be defeated.Or Raja should go Public with his evidence to expose the Congress's Main Role in the 2G Scam and the High Ups
involved.
Heard of Omertà? A popular cultural attitude and code of honour that
places heavy importance on a deep-rooted "code of silence", non-
cooperation with authorities, and non-interference in the illegal
actions of others. There is no limit to the extent to which "Godfather"
of the Mafia called Congress, will bend to enforce
Omertà! Indians eagerly await the Bradley Manning whistle blower type to
expose these parasites who have been sucking the nation dry!
congress has aggression about the true facts being revealed by A Raja.
JPC should give the chance to Raja,as he is only a pawn used by any big fish in upa-2.
For the Congress, what really is inevitable is not that Raja should be
called to the JPC rather than that he should be kept safely away from
it. Once Raja appears and testifies, who knows what will come out?
Worse, it could well become a precedent for calling Chidambaram and even
Dr Singh himself, where the latter's reticence with the spoken word will
be of no avail to him.
Absolutely Mr Chacko.
Any witness that can nail the lies and corruption of your pary is not welcome to depose in JPC.
The JPC is just an eyewash , the government pretending that its acting against corruption. The congress vice president will then act as if the government was forced to do corruption (to drink the chalice of poison) by the people of the country for the well being of the country.
This Congressman is not acting like previous JPC Chairmen He represents only the interests of the Congress party. Because of the fear that in case Rajaa is called for and if he testifies that the decision taken by him had full backing of the PM FM then Mr. Das Gupta would demand calling of the two. So just to avoid this situation Mr. Chacko is wary of calling Rajaa Why he is using the circuitous way of telling " not possible" as “it’s not inevitable”?
Mr. Chacko is behaving as if he's a mere puppet in the hands of
Congress. Why is Congress so scared in calling Mr. Raja once again as a
witness?!
Please Email the Editor