Tweet
SC order vindicated PAC report: Joshi
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday claimed the Supreme Court’s order canceling 122 telecom licences has vindicated the Parliamentary panel’s report on the 2G Scam. The PAC report on the scam had got into a big controversy after UPA MPs objected to its findings and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar refused to accept the report in its present form.
A combative Joshi read out from the ‘rejected’ draft report to claim they were similar to the SC’s order. “The court suggested determination of the spectrum’s price through auction, which was also recommended by the PAC. The SC also agreed that licences should be cancelled, a recommendation that even the PAC had made,” Joshi said.
He maintained that when the Supreme Court observed there had been a huge loss to the exchequer, it was in a manner endorsing the presumptive loss of `1.76 lakh crore arrived at by the CAG and endorsed in the PAC’s draft report.
Ever since the Speaker returned the report to the committee in June last year, it has not been taken up in the PAC that continues to have UPA MPs in majority. The report had recommended that spectrum and the licence to use should be separate and that a charge should be levied for the additional spectrum that was given to the companies for free.
The report had pointed fingers at the Prime Minister’s office and then Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Joshi did not agree with claims that the SC had virtually let off Chidambaram by putting the entire blame at the doors of then Telecom Minister A Raja.
“It is not the case. It is an open and shut case against him. Had there been no proof against Chidambaram, the court would not have asked Subramanian Swamy to provide evidences against the Minister,” Joshi said.
The senior BJP leader asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, again, to break his silence over the issue and categorically announce what action he was contemplating against his Cabinet colleagues, officials in PMO and others responsible for the scam.
“We would ask the PM again to immediately sack Chidambaram and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal. The PM must break his silence,” Joshi said, suggesting that silence on PM’s part would only further substantiate that he was in the know of things, but refused to act.
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday claimed the Supreme Court’s order canceling 122 telecom licences has vindicated the Parliamentary panel’s report on the 2G Scam. The PAC report on the scam had got into a big controversy after UPA MPs objected to its findings and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar refused to accept the report in its present form.
A combative Joshi read out from the ‘rejected’ draft report to claim they were similar to the SC’s order. “The court suggested determination of the spectrum’s price through auction, which was also recommended by the PAC. The SC also agreed that licences should be cancelled, a recommendation that even the PAC had made,” Joshi said.
He maintained that when the Supreme Court observed there had been a huge loss to the exchequer, it was in a manner endorsing the presumptive loss of `1.76 lakh crore arrived at by the CAG and endorsed in the PAC’s draft report.
Ever since the Speaker returned the report to the committee in June last year, it has not been taken up in the PAC that continues to have UPA MPs in majority. The report had recommended that spectrum and the licence to use should be separate and that a charge should be levied for the additional spectrum that was given to the companies for free.
The report had pointed fingers at the Prime Minister’s office and then Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Joshi did not agree with claims that the SC had virtually let off Chidambaram by putting the entire blame at the doors of then Telecom Minister A Raja.
“It is not the case. It is an open and shut case against him. Had there been no proof against Chidambaram, the court would not have asked Subramanian Swamy to provide evidences against the Minister,” Joshi said.
The senior BJP leader asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, again, to break his silence over the issue and categorically announce what action he was contemplating against his Cabinet colleagues, officials in PMO and others responsible for the scam.
“We would ask the PM again to immediately sack Chidambaram and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal. The PM must break his silence,” Joshi said, suggesting that silence on PM’s part would only further substantiate that he was in the know of things, but refused to act.
