By IANS,
New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Friday refused to buy the government’s stand that the controversy over the finance ministry’s note on the 2G spectrum issue was closed, and demanded the resignation of Home Minister P. Chidambaram.
Addressing a news conference after a two-day politburo meeting of the CPI-M here, party general secretary Prakash Karat said “the finance ministry note matter is not closed”.
Finance Minister Mukherjee Thursday said the note from his ministry on the 2G scam did not reflect his views and it was a background paper. Chidambaram then said that the matter was closed.
Said Karat: “The matter is not closed. The issue is very much alive. Chidambaram has to take responsibility for his action. The politburo demands that he resigns from the union cabinet.”
The March 25 finance ministry note tothe Prime Minister’s Office says that the airwaves could have been auctioned in 2008 if Chidambaram, who was then the finance minister, had “stuck to his stand”.
“Despite the obfuscation by the government, the issue is that P. Chidambaram had given the green signal for a policy which led to a massive loss to the state exchequer,” Karat said.
“The explanation provided by Mukherjee that it is an inter-ministerial note prepared with inputs from various ministers and coordinated by the cabinet secretary only underlines the authoritative nature of the conclusions that have been drawn… Therefore, P. Chidambaram has to take responsibility for his action,” Karat said.
“The recent period has once again highlighted the high level of corruption which has engulfed the UPA government since its inception,” he added.
Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Karat said BJP leader L.K. Advani’s ‘rath yatra’ will “have no credibility whatsoever” as the party has to answer for its record of corruption when the party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was in power.
“The BJP is also accountable for the brazen corruption under its state government in Karnataka,” he said.
“The illegal mining and the nexus with the mining mafia, which has resulted in tens of thousands of crores of rupees being looted is a stark testimony” to the BJP’s record, he added.
The politburo meeting discussed the outline for the draft resolution on ideological issues, Karat said. After discussions at various party fora, the draft resolution will be taken up at the party congress to be held in April next year.