Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cannot escape responsibility for the 2G spectrum scam, the CPI said today, but stopped short of demanding his resignation.
Senior CPI leader and general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) Gurdas Das Gupta said he had written two letters to the Prime Minister in 2008 pointing out “a loot of Rs 50,000 crore then in this scam.
“But I got no response from the Prime Minister though I received a single line acknowledgement of my communication,” he said after addressing a state—level rally of the AITUC here this evening.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Dasgupta said that it was up to the Prime Minister to decide whether to resign or not but the government must accept the opposition’s demand for a joint parliamentary committee on the scam.
“PAC is not a competent authority to go into the whole issue,” he claimed.
In reply to a question, the CPI leader claimed that the 2G spectrum scam was “only the tip of the iceberg while a lot more scams of the UPA-2 government are likely to come to light soon.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Things could have been worse during the UPA-l regime (2004—09) had it not been for the checks applied by the Left Front that was supporting the government then,” he claimed.
He also blamed the central government for the rise in prices of essential commodities, alleging that “the government is hand—in—glove with the hoarders”.