New Delhi, Oct 31 (IANS) The UPA government seems headed for fresh trouble over the finance ministry note on 2G spectrum allocation that had led to a reported tussle between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P. Chidambaram last month.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday tried to corner the government over the March 23 note that was circulated two days ago to members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the 2G allocation scandal, claiming the note had been tampered with in an attempt to suppress facts.
It raised the issue at the JPC meet in the evening, when it said the note circulated to JPC members had been amended by substituting the word ‘approval’ with ‘perusal’ that was in the note put up by the ministry’s additional secretary.
The issue has come exactly a month after a truce was brought by the government between Mukherjee and Chidambaram, after the finance minister said the views expressed in the note on Chidambaram’s role in the 2G allocation were not his.
After Mukherjee made the statement to the media, Chidambaram had said that he accepted the clarification and the matter now stood closed.
The note sent to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) by the finance ministry in March had suggested that the 2G spectrum could have been auctioned, and not allotted, had Chidambaram, as the then finance minister in 2008, insisted.
