UPA Govt. has no will to fight corruption: BJP

NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday pulled up the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, saying his comments made during the interaction with top television editors of the country had exposed the weakness of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government in fighting corruption.

“This UPA government has no will to fight corruption. The media interaction was a cover-up act on corruption,” said BJP President Nitin Gadkari, asserting that blaming everything on coalition politics was an attempt to cover up failure by the government.

Further cementing on the statements made by the Prime Minister on the 2G spectrum scam, Gadkari said: “He compared spectrum prices to price of fertilizers, oil prices and food prices, this is a matter to laugh at.”

“He blamed the opposition for the JPC. If he thinks we wasted Parliament’s time, then why didn’t he agree to a JPC earlier?” he asked.

The Prime Minister earlier today said that he was not aware of the methodology of the controversial First-Come, First-Serve (FCFS) policy followed for 2G spectrum allocation by former Telecom Minister A Raja.

During his interaction with top television editors, Dr. Singh said: “Who got the licences… how FCFS was implemented, this was never discussed with me nor was it brought to the Cabinet. This was exclusively Telecom Minister’s decision.”

He, however, said that since the Ministries of Finance and Telecom had agreed to continue with the existing policy of allocating 2G spectrum.

“I did not feel that I was in a position to insist that auction must be insisted,” he added.

On retaining Raja as the Telecom Minister in the UPA-II, Dr Singh said in a coalition government, the choices of the Leaders of the Alliance partners have to be accepted and that the DMK had suggested Raja and Dayanidhi Maran into the Union Cabinet.

“At that moment, there was no reason to feel that anything wrong had been done,” he said.

Dr. Singh further said Raja has assured him of complete transparency in the allocation of 2G spectrum.

A. Raja was forced to resign from the Union Cabinet last year after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) faulted him for undervaluing spectrum to favour companies who were largely ineligible for 2G spectrum, and added that the government had probably lost Rs.1.76 lakh crore in estimated revenue. (ANI)