By IANS,
New Delhi: Ahead of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rally on corruption, alliance convenor and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Sharad Yadav Tuesday scoffed at the prime minister’s offer to appear before a parliamentary panel on the 2G spectrum scam issue, and said only a joint parliamentary committee can look into it.
Yadav said the overarching conclusion of discussions at the Congress plenary was “how to escape from constituting a JPC (joint parliamentary committee)”. He added that only a JPC will be able to go into the depths of a “big scandal”.
“Corruption was the main issue at the Congress plenary but the summary of discussions was how to escape form constituting a JPC. Whether it was Congress president or other leaders, their speeches had only one meaning – to entangle people in discussion on corruption in the same way that the issue has been suppressed in the past,” Yadav said.
“JPC is like a mini-parliament. Only it can properly look into the 2G spectrum scam,” he said.
Referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s offer to appear before the Public Accounts Committee of parliament if called, Yadav said no opposition party had raised this issue.
“The issue is of corruption. No political party has said that the PM should appear before a committee or that he will be called by JPC,” he said.
Taking exception to the Congress calling upon people to fight corruption, Yadav said that it was for the government to take decisive action against the corrupt.
“Who are you telling to fight corruption? Is the common man corrupt? It is the responsibility of those who govern to tackle the problem,” he said.
Yadav maintained there were no scams during the tenures of non-Congress prime ministers, including Morarji Desai, V.P. Singh, H.D. Deve Gowda, I.K. Gujral, Chandra Shekhar and Charan Singh.
Though he did not take name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the same breath, Yadav said that a JPC probe into the spectrum allocation can be done from 1998 when the NDA government, of which he was a part, was in power.
Responding to the Congress attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its demand for a JPC, Yadav said all opposition parties wanted the parliamentary committee to look into the spectrum allocation controversy. “Even allies of the Congress are in favour of a JPC,” he said.
Answering queries about the rising onion prices, Yadav said the government only makes statements about checking prices but the ground reality is very different.
He said that issues of corruption and price rise will figure in the NDA rally Wednesday.