By IANS,
Chennai : Reiterating her demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum allotment, AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa Wednesday said DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was blackmailing the Congress on the issue.
Referring to Karunanidhi’s speech at a movie function here, Jayalalithaa said: “Karunanidhi used the platform of this function to make an impassioned public defence of A. Raja, the prime perpetrator of the Rs.1,76,379 crore spectrum scam. By making an odious comparison with a mythological story, he sought to make out that Raja alone could not have perpetrated a scam of such enormity on his own.”
She said his speech was a veiled threat to the Congress leadership to go slow on the spectrum investigation and his way of blackmailing his alliance partner.
“If precipitate steps are taken to corner Raja, Karunanidhi warns, then he will not hesitate to reveal the names of some others directly or indirectly involved in the scam. The implication is that such a revelation could be unpalatable to the Congress,” Jayalalithaa said.
Referring to the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) government’s reluctance to institute a JPC probe, she said: “The more the UPA government resists, the more it confirms that the buck does not stop with Raja.”
Raja, whose residences in New Delhi and his native Perambalur in Tamil Nadu were searched by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday morning, has resigned as union communications and IT minister.
Stating that the resignation of Raja was not sufficient, Jayalalithaa said the inquiries had to go beyond estimating the loss suffered by the nation.
“The quantum of kickbacks for perpetrating this mega scam has to be ascertained. The beneficiaries of these kickbacks have to be questioned. The money trail has to be traced. The money has to be recovered. The guilty have to be punished. And the people have to be kept informed on a day-to-day basis of the developments. Justice has to not only be done, it should be seen to have been done,” the former chief minister said.