New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) With the stalemate in parliament continuing, the Left and several non-BJP opposition parties Tuesday met President Pratibha Patil and urged her to ‘exercise her influence’ over the government to make it accept the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam.
‘We urge upon you to exercise your influence on the government to accept this perfectly legitimate demand for constitution of a JPC to probe this spectrum scam and resolve the current impasse to allow the parliament to continue with its work,’ the opposition parties said in a memorandum to the president.
The parties included the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India, All India Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Telugu Desam Party, Janata Dal-Secular, AIADMK, Assam Gana Parishad, Biju Janata Dal, MDMK and Rashtriya Lok Dal.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters after the meeting that only a JPC could end the government-opposition standoff.
‘The president is the head of parliament, so we urged her to ask the government to accept the demand for a JPC,’ he said.
‘There is a need to check the structure…, how it is being misused for corruption. Only a JPC can suggest new regulation, if necessary, new laws so that the country can be protected against corruption,’ he said.
‘The point is that the 2G is the largest scam in independent India. Rs.1.76 lakh crore is the estimate of CAG. This amount could have been used in eliminating hunger or imparting education. The future of the country is involved,’ added the CPI-M leader.
Another party leader, Basudeb Acharia, said the ‘scam was so huge that only JPC will deliver justice and probe it creditably. Nothing short of JPC is acceptable.’
Expressing concern at the ‘exponentially growing cases of corruption in the country’, the opposition parties blamed the Congress and the government for the stalemate in parliament.
‘The UPA government and the leader of the coalition, the Congress, are responsible for this by their obdurate refusal to appoint a JPC to probe all facts of the massive spectrum scam,’ the parties said in the memorandum.
The memorandum said that JPCs have been constituted earlier on corruption scams of smaller dimensions.
‘Apart from identifying and nailing the guilty, it is necessary to identify how the system could be so manipulated to result in such a massive scam. It is only a JPC that can suggest adequate safeguards against recurrence of such massive scams draining out huge resources of a poor country like India. Also, JPC can recommend new laws to prevent malpractices of such dimensions,’ the memorandum said.
Both houses of parliament were adjourned for the 13th day Tuesday without transacting any business as the opposition relentlessly pursued its demand for a parliamentary probe into the spectrum allotment in 2008.
