The Joint Parliamentary Committee on spectrum allocations is likely to meet next week amid the Congress and the Opposition trading charges against each other on the content of the draft report.
The Opposition members had approached Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Thursday, demanding the removal of the chairman of the panel, P.C. Chacko.
Chacko met Kumar here on Friday to explain his position.
Chacko is learnt to have told the Speaker that his conduct was above politics and was democratic.
Chacko told the Speaker that every meeting of the panel was convened after consultations with the members.
In a letter to the Speaker, Chacko has reportedly said that Parliamentary Rules do not permit him to summon the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister.
On summoning former Telecom Minister A. Raja, the JPC Chairman was of the view that Raja alone could not be called as the panel was discussing spectrum allocations since 1998.
He said all Ministers responsible should also have to be called and in that case, some of the JPC members may have had to depose before the panel.
Yechury’s missive
On the draft report, he is learnt to have told the Speaker that amendments could be made to the draft after clause-by-clause discussion in the panel.
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) member on the panel, Sitaram Yechury, has written to all members of the panel that without summoning the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, the proceedings of the JPC will not be complete.
“On what basis did the Prime Minister drop the suggestion for auctioning of the licenses he himself had made to Raja in his letter dated November 2, 2008?” Yechury asked in the letter.
The BJP said Chacko’s continuation as chairman had become untenable.
The party said there was no basis to the Congress’s stand that three BJP leaders – Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Ravi Shankar Prasad – should not continue on the panel.
Jaswant Singh said the Speaker had given a direction on this issue soon after the first meeting of the JPC.