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In the backdrop of former Telecom Minister A. Raja telling the JPC that he took major decisions after consulting the Prime Minister, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha today asked Manmohan Singh to appear before the panel, saying his silence will “confirm” his involvement in the 2G scam.
“Is it not time Mr Prime Minister that you speak on these issues by appearing before the JPC?” Sinha, a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the 2G issue, said in his latest letter to the Prime Minister.
“You had said in your letter of April 2 (to Sinha) that you had nothing to hide. Your deafening silence on the allegations made by your own colleague in the Cabinet completely disapproves the stand you had taken,” he wrote.
Sinha said the Prime Minister should appear before the JPC as the allegations levelled by Raja “constitute a set of serious allegations of your personal involvement in the 2G scam”.
His letter comes a day before the JPC meeting convened to adopt the controversial draft report which gives a clean chit to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.
“Your silence will confirm the worst fears of the people of India that you were fully involved in the 2G scam and if Raja is guilty, so are you,” he wrote.
Hinting at a stormy meeting of the committee tomorrow, Sinha said, “Under the leadership of your party member P. C. Chacko, the JPC is facing the risk of a complete stalemate, if not total destruction.”
In a statement to the JPC, Raja had said on Monday that he took “every major decision”, including entry fee and non-auction of spectrum, after consulting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee.
“I took no unilateral decisions. Every major decision of mine was taken after consultation first with the DoT officers and, thereafter, with the Hon’ble PM, FM (Finance Minister P. Chidambaram) and EAM (then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee who was heading a GoM on vacation of spectrum),” he had said.
Raja’s statement to the JPC came after the draft report of the 30-member committee indicted him of misleading the Prime Minister on decisions taken with regard to 2G spectrum allocation.
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