By IANS,
New Delhi : Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Gurudas Dasgupta Thursday walked out of a meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the 2G spectrum in protest against Congress member Shashi Tharoor defending a deposing witness “against procedures” of the panel.
“I walked out as defending a witness when the witness is deposing before a Committee is against the procedures. Tharoor has created a bad precedence,” Dasgupta told reporters here.
The JPC had met to quiz Planning Commission Secretary Sindhushree Khullar, who is a former additional secretary in department of economic affairs under the finance ministry.
Dasgupta claimed he walked out of the meeting after Tharoor defended Khullar when she was being quizzed.
The CPI leader took objection to Tharoor, a panel member, defending a witness “much against the procedures” of the panel.
As a war of words with Tharoor ensued, Dasgupta staged a walk out.
The CPI leader also wrote a letter to the panel chairman P.C. Chacko demanding that Finance Minister P. Chidambaram be called before the JPC as a witness.
In the letter, Dasgupta said Chidambaram will be able to explain his ministry’s “inability to prevent department of telecommunications from unilaterally going ahead with the allocation of 2G spectrum licences in spite of opposition from various quarters”.
“This may effectively nail down suspicion and can bring out that there is no impartiality on part of the JPC to conduct a neutral inquiry,” Dasgupta wrote in the letter.
The CPI leader also cited a precedent, noting that as finance minister Manmohan Singh had deposed before the JPC on securities scam.
The CPI’s demand comes after a similar demand was made by CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, who is also a panel member, during the JPC meeting Sep 18.
The BJP is already keeping away from the JPC meetings over the issue of calling the prime minister, the finance minister and two other former ministers before the panel.