New Delhi, Sep 28 (IANS) Amid efforts by the Congress and the government to downplay a controversial note on 2G spectrum allocation which has triggered a demands for Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s resignation, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explaining that the document had inputs from various ministries.
Official sources said the letter, whose copy has also been sent to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was a chronology of events on the pricing and allocation of 2G spectrum.
The timing of letter has coincided with the efforts in the government to put an end to the controversy which has fuelled tensions of a divide between Chidambaram and Mukherjee.
Congress sources said Mukherjee’s letter was intended to end speculation that his ministry was shifting blame to Chidambaram in the 2008 2G spectrum allocations and that the controversial note was a collective effort involving many other ministries.
They said that the letter may not assuage feelings of Chidambaram, who has been hurt by the controversy.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been pressing for Chidambaram’s ouster, hit out at the prime minister Wednesday over his defence of the minister on his way back from the US Tuesday.
At the heart of the row is a note from the finance ministry in March this year that suggests that the 2008 spectrum scam could have been avoided if only Chidambaram, as the then finance minister, had opted for the auction route.
The controversial note has surfaced now through a Right to Information query.
BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley took on the government, accusing the prime minister of ‘living in denials’ and said the Congress-led ruling alliance was cracking up on its own.
Pointing out that both Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi had May 22 vowed to fight corruption, Sushma Swaraj asked: ‘How did the policy of fighting corruption become a policy of saving corrupt ministers?’
The spectrum scandal has landed disgraced communication minister A. Raja in jail along with other politicians and company executives. The BJP says Chidambaram should not be treated differently.
Both Sushma Swaraj and Jaitley denied the prime minister’s charge that the opposition was trying to force early elections.
‘If there will be an early election, it will be because of their doing, not because of our asking,’ said Sushma Swaraj.
He said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was facing a ‘crisis of leadership, crisis of credibility’.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi sought to downplay the note, saying it does not increase or decrease anyone’s guilt.
Singhvi said ‘whatever was criminally liable (in 2G allocation) was over in 2008’ and had been examined by court.
He said the BJP was trying to create ‘an ambience of uncertainty’, echoing the prime minister’s charge Tuesday.
Slamming the BJP for comparing Chidambaram with the jailed Raja, Singhvi said the DMK leader faces charges of changing dates in respect of spectrum allocation.
Taking a dig at the BJP, he said: ‘If you stop telling lies about us, we will stop telling the truth about you.’
Mukherjee Wednesday did not comment on the latest note sent by him to the prime minister and the Congress president. ‘Correspondence between the PM and ministers, I believe is confidential,’ he said.
Officials in North Block said Mukherjee’s letter was a chronology of events on the pricing and allocation of spectrum. They said that the document sent by a finance ministry official as ‘a background note’.
Informed sources said Chidambaram was present at the prime minister’s residence Wednesday when he hosted lunch for former British prime minister Tony Blair.
