<p>Casting doubts over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s continued defence of Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G controversy, the BJP on Saturday sought to know his “compulsions” for doing so in spite of “damning evidence” against the Union minister.<br /><br />The party also questioned the prime minster’s “culpability” who, it alleged, “bypassed the cabinet and excluded spectrum pricing from the GoM jurisdiction which facilitated the massive 2G scam”.<br /><br />The party said corruption was growing not because of “compulsion of coalition politics” as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would claim but because the UPA-2 itself “is a coalition of the corrupt.”<br /><br />On the concluding day of the BJP national executive meet, senior leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley said that UPA-2 might not last its term and asked the party to prepare for Lok Sabha polls. Swaraj said the party should learn from the mistakes of the Congress and give stress on clean politics.<br /><br />A political resolution passed after the two-day meet here referred to the prime minister’s recent assertion that Chidambaram continued to enjoy his full confidence. The BJP sought to know how could Chidambaram continue to enjoy the confidence of the prime minister when the same charge was clearly maintainable against former telecom minister A Raja, jailed in the 2G spectrum allocation case. “Did the prime minister do his home work well about the role of Shri Chidambaram or there is compulsion for him to express confidence in his favour lest “the embers of 2G fire may not reach the PMO,” the resolution said. The BJP also reiterated its demand that Chidambaram be removed from the Union Cabinet and also prosecuted like Raja. <br /><br />The BJP said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had confirmed that the office memorandum of March 25, 2011, that pointed to the alleged role of Chidambaram was a collective effort of the Finance Ministry, the Prime Minister Office and the Cabinet Secretariat besides the Telecom Ministry.<br /><br />“The case against Shri Chidambaram is simple and straight forward… he as the Finance Minister send a note on 15/01/2008 to the Prime Minister inter-alia stating that “Spectrum is scarce resource and the most transparent method of allotting Spectrum would be through auction.” <br /><br />Notwithstanding this opinion for allotments already made the Minister observed “in such cases the past may be treated as a closed chapter,” the resolution said. The party said the prime minister in his statement in the Rajya Sabha on February 24, 2011, also confirmed that although the finance minister had a different view when he sent his note on January 15, 2008, but subsequently in consultation with the minister of telecommunication the two worked out an agreed stand on the spectrum charges, which was reported to him on on July 4, 2008.<br /><br />The latest Finance Ministry note dated March 25, 2011, which was prepared from the inputs of the PMO as well clearly mentions that the loss of revenue has occurred because “thus the Ministry of Finance implicitly agreed to the imposition of the same entry fee as prevailing in 2001 for licences allotted up to 31 Dec. 2008,” the resolution maintained. The BJP also said it wanted to know as to why Chidambaram and his Ministry “changed its position.”<br /><br />The resolution said the decision to exclude spectrum pricing from the Term of Reference of GoM was taken unilaterally by the PM without Cabinet approval in 2006 at the instance of then telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran. “This led to the beginning of the spectrum scam,” it alleged and hoped that Maran would soon join Raja in jail. <br /><br />“The point to note is that Shri A Raja is in jail and Shri Dayanidhi Maran is to follow there very soon. What about the culpability of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who bypassed the cabinet and excluded spectrum pricing from the GoM jurisdiction which facilitated the massive 2G scam,” it said.<br /><br />The party described the prosecution of “the whistle blower” like former BJP MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahavir Bhagora and Sudhindra Kulkarni in the cash for vote scam as “atrocious”.</p>
<p>Casting doubts over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s continued defence of Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G controversy, the BJP on Saturday sought to know his “compulsions” for doing so in spite of “damning evidence” against the Union minister.<br /><br />The party also questioned the prime minster’s “culpability” who, it alleged, “bypassed the cabinet and excluded spectrum pricing from the GoM jurisdiction which facilitated the massive 2G scam”.<br /><br />The party said corruption was growing not because of “compulsion of coalition politics” as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would claim but because the UPA-2 itself “is a coalition of the corrupt.”<br /><br />On the concluding day of the BJP national executive meet, senior leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley said that UPA-2 might not last its term and asked the party to prepare for Lok Sabha polls. Swaraj said the party should learn from the mistakes of the Congress and give stress on clean politics.<br /><br />A political resolution passed after the two-day meet here referred to the prime minister’s recent assertion that Chidambaram continued to enjoy his full confidence. The BJP sought to know how could Chidambaram continue to enjoy the confidence of the prime minister when the same charge was clearly maintainable against former telecom minister A Raja, jailed in the 2G spectrum allocation case. “Did the prime minister do his home work well about the role of Shri Chidambaram or there is compulsion for him to express confidence in his favour lest “the embers of 2G fire may not reach the PMO,” the resolution said. The BJP also reiterated its demand that Chidambaram be removed from the Union Cabinet and also prosecuted like Raja. <br /><br />The BJP said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had confirmed that the office memorandum of March 25, 2011, that pointed to the alleged role of Chidambaram was a collective effort of the Finance Ministry, the Prime Minister Office and the Cabinet Secretariat besides the Telecom Ministry.<br /><br />“The case against Shri Chidambaram is simple and straight forward… he as the Finance Minister send a note on 15/01/2008 to the Prime Minister inter-alia stating that “Spectrum is scarce resource and the most transparent method of allotting Spectrum would be through auction.” <br /><br />Notwithstanding this opinion for allotments already made the Minister observed “in such cases the past may be treated as a closed chapter,” the resolution said. The party said the prime minister in his statement in the Rajya Sabha on February 24, 2011, also confirmed that although the finance minister had a different view when he sent his note on January 15, 2008, but subsequently in consultation with the minister of telecommunication the two worked out an agreed stand on the spectrum charges, which was reported to him on on July 4, 2008.<br /><br />The latest Finance Ministry note dated March 25, 2011, which was prepared from the inputs of the PMO as well clearly mentions that the loss of revenue has occurred because “thus the Ministry of Finance implicitly agreed to the imposition of the same entry fee as prevailing in 2001 for licences allotted up to 31 Dec. 2008,” the resolution maintained. The BJP also said it wanted to know as to why Chidambaram and his Ministry “changed its position.”<br /><br />The resolution said the decision to exclude spectrum pricing from the Term of Reference of GoM was taken unilaterally by the PM without Cabinet approval in 2006 at the instance of then telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran. “This led to the beginning of the spectrum scam,” it alleged and hoped that Maran would soon join Raja in jail. <br /><br />“The point to note is that Shri A Raja is in jail and Shri Dayanidhi Maran is to follow there very soon. What about the culpability of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who bypassed the cabinet and excluded spectrum pricing from the GoM jurisdiction which facilitated the massive 2G scam,” it said.<br /><br />The party described the prosecution of “the whistle blower” like former BJP MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahavir Bhagora and Sudhindra Kulkarni in the cash for vote scam as “atrocious”.</p>
