If all alliance partners of the United Progressive Alliance, barring the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, are clear that their hands are clean, then why should they shy away from a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Jayalalithaa asked on Tuesday.
“If they continue to oppose the Opposition demand for a JPC probe, then the only conclusion people can draw is that they too have dipped into the loot and, in that case, it is not just the State of Tamil Nadu that is in danger, but Indian democracy itself,” she said in a statement here.
Recalling Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram brushing aside the Opposition demand for a JPC probe into the 2G Spectrum allocation scam, she said this was “most unfortunate.”
“That no less a person than the Union Home Minister chose to make such a statement standing right outside Parliament was an indication that it is not the individual view of Mr. Chidambaram alone but the collective view of the UPA government. This is reinforced by the comments of Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who has also rejected the demand for a JPC probe,” Ms. Jayalalithaa said.
Agreeing with the argument that it was normal practice for issues raised in a CAG report to be taken up by the Public Accounts Committee, she said that the present situation was “not normal,” and hence a JPC probe alone would be proper.
She contended that the scope of the PAC was limited, because it could only verify accounting discrepancies and could not recommend prosecution. The ramifications of the 2G Spectrum allocation were far wider. An enquiry should also focus on who benefited, and to what extent, and what action the government would take to recover the money.
Also the JPC was a more representative body than the PAC because it included senior members of both Houses of Parliament and a wider cross-section of political parties.
It had more authority to call not just the officials of the government but everybody connected.
She said that the ouster of A. Raja from the post of Telecom Minister was just the beginning, not the end of the whole issue.
“It is imperative to get to the truth and bring the criminals to justice at the earliest if democracy is to be preserved.”
