Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi on Sunday said the CBI probe into spectrum allocation during the National Democratic Alliance regime was an attempt at diverting attention from real issues.
“The Congress has been consistently attacking institutions such as the Comptroller and Auditor-General and the PAC, and now it has launched an attack on the NDA. All these are attempts to save Home Minister P. Chidambaram and the former Telecom Ministers, A. Raja and Dayanidhi Maran,” Dr. Joshi alleged at a press conference here.
“The real issue is that you first decide the action for wrongs you have committed. We will own responsibility if any mistakes were committed during our tenure and do not worry about that. The crime committed by you is now not diminished. How would you justify your action?”
The senior BJP leader said: “Simply because you have been caught for all irregularities, you are trying to blame the others. Yours is a proven case. The Supreme Court has taken cognisance. People are behind bars. Now the government is saying that it will issue notice for licences issued already. What you have been doing all these years?”
On the loss caused to the exchequer on account of 2G spectrum allocation, he said: “The loss is debatable. The CAG has already clarified it. The amount of loss could be more. There was a calculation of loss more than Rs. 4,00,000 crore. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury has put it at Rs. 2 lakh crore.”
Dr. Joshi said, “We had asked the government to quantify the loss. The Finance Ministry said it was unable to arrive at a figure. Then who will calculate it? All this indicates attempts at camouflaging the corruption.”
