Opposition demand for JPC cheap and political: Congress
By IANSThursday, December 16, 2010
NEW DELHI - The Congress Thursday termed the opposition’s demand for a joint parliamentary probe into the 2G spectrum scam as “cheap” and “politically motivated” and asked it to accept the CBI probe into the controversial issue.
“It is very wrong to mix JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) with the judicial proceeding which is ongoing. The demand for JPC is purely political. It’s a cheap political demand,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here.
Taking on the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for stalling parliament, Singhvi said there was “absolutely no cause for disrupting and paralysing the temple of democracy for 23 days”.
“When there are more than seven statutory and other proceedings simultaneously going on in respect to 2G and when many of them have wide powers, what is the need for a JPC? This is a politically motivated demand, which we will not accept,” the Congress spokesperson said.
Asking the opposition to accept the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the spectrum scam, he said: “if we start distrusting everything, the system will break down.”
Singhvi said the apex court also “broadly commended or endorsed” the manner and the method adopted by the CBI in the probe. “Therefore apprehensions should be allayed.”
The Supreme Court Thursday said there was prima facie evidence of wrongdoings in the grant of 2G spectrum licences in 2008 and that of dual use technology to some telecom operators in 2007.
A bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly also issued directions to the CBI to hold a comprehensive and coordinated probe into the scam.
“The 2G issue is directly sub-judice and a process is going on. There is no final culmination, a judgment has come and further proceedings will be on… Therefore its important not to pre-judge (probe findings) in terms of finality,” he added.
The opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had Tuesday reiterated its demand for a JPC probe, announcing a nationwide campaign from Dec 22 to intensify its “fight against corruption”.
