Opposition and DMK members of the Joint
Parliamentary Committee on 2G demanded the ouster of chairperson P.C. Chacko
for being “highly partisan” and asked Speaker Meira Kumar to replace him with a
new chief. The 15 Joint Parliamentary Committee members belonging to BJP, JD(U),
AIADMK, DMK, Left parties, TMC, and BJD met the Speaker and expressed “no-confidence”
in Mr. Chacko on grounds of “highly partisan, unfair and prejudicial” conduct
as also leakage of the draft report. The JPC has 30 members, including
Mr. Chacko.
Congress, NCP, BSP and SP are supporting the
chairperson. Though SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has said prime accused A. Raja
should have been called by the JPC as he wanted to depose, the party does not
wish to go to the extent of seeking Mr. Chacko’s removal.
Amid opposition plans to corner the JPC Chairman
over clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the much-talked about meeting
of the panel to adopt the draft report was today postponed following death of a
Lok Sabha member.
Mr. Chacko said that the new date would be
announced indicating that it would be possible only next week as some members
have expressed “inconvenience” if it is held on April 26, 2013.
The NDA members submitted one letter to the Speaker
against Chacko while the other parties gave separate letters. In the letters —
which were formulated by these parties in consultation with each other — the
members expressed their anger at the manner in which Mr. Chacko conducted the
proceedings. His behaviour has been “unfair, prejudicial and unbecoming of the
post to which he was appointed”, the letters said.
Members alleged that Mr. Chacko has failed in his
duty to lead the JPC to bring out the truth. “Instead he has used the JPC to
conceal and subvert the truth,” the members said. They also alleged that the
report was leaked to the media before they were given copies. Expressing “no-confidence”
in Mr. Chacko, these members urged Ms. Meira Kumar to immediately replace him. The
15 members later said Ms. Kumar promised that she will look into their demand.
This action from the non-Congress members was
precipitated due to the cancellation of April 25, 2013’s JPC meeting — due to
the death of TMC MP Ambika Banerjee — in which the report was to be adopted. They
had earlier planned to press for a vote on the draft report at Thursday’s JPC
meeting. The draft report has given a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.
CPI(M) to submit dissent note:- Meanwhile, CPI(M) said it would submit a
note of dissent on the JPC report on 2G scam, saying the draft report prepared
by its chairperson P.C. Chacko was “biased."
Senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram
Yechury, who is a JPC member said that, ‘my dissent note is ready and I will
submit it at the meeting of the JPC when it is held next week. It is a detailed
note which will give out the reasons why we disapprove the draft report, which
is completely biased”. Without elaborating on the contents of his dissent note,
he said “it will also act as an alternative report” on the 2G spectrum
allocation scam. The draft has given a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
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