Congress keeps mum on Raja, blames BJP for disrupting parliament

NEW DELHI - Maintaining its stand of not commenting on Telecom Minister A. Raja’s involvement in the 2G spectrum scam, Congress Wednesday accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of disrupting parliament.

Shortly after BJP blamed Congress for ‘disrupting proceedings or distracting attention whenever corruption issues are raised in parliament’, the Congress ‘condemned’ the main opposition party for stalling the proceedings on the second day of the winter session.

“This has become a pattern used by the opposition parties, disrupting all important issues which are decided to be taken up in the business advisory committee. We condemn this,” Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said.

“This is the antithesis of democratic discussions. We call upon the opposition parties to come ahead and discuss all issues,” she said.

Both houses of parliament were adjourned Wednesday as opposition MPs demanded a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum, Adarsh housing society and CWG corruption scams.

Natarajan, however, stuck to the party stand of refusing to make any comments on A. Raja.

“The issue of Mr. Raja has been discussed many times. There are two things, first the matter is sub-judice, secondly the coalition ‘dharma’ will have to be kept in mind before taking any decision,” she said, referring to DMK, Congress’ coalition partner in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

The spokesperson also rubbished reports about the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) valuing the scam at Rs.1.76 lakh crore.

“It is a leak from the draft report, there is no official version we have come across. The draft report goes to many departments, after which it is finalised and then presented to government and Parliament. We cannot go by the information,” she said.

She added that her party has taken a stand on corruption, while BJP had not.

“There was the Tehelka scam, there was the Jharkhand scam, there has been horse trading in Karnataka Assembly recently. BJP has never taken any stand on any issue,” Natarajan said.

Answering a question on the Adarsh Society scam, the spokesperson said that the probe is on, and the guilty will be punished.