Mangalore, Dec 11 (IANS) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani Saturday attacked the central government for setting up a one-man probe panel on airwave allocation without informing parliament.
‘The decision to appoint the panel without discussing the issue in parliament cannot be accepted,’ he told reporters in this coastal Karnataka town, about 350 km from Bangalore.
The BJP and other opposition parties have stalled parliament for the last 21 days demanding a joint parliamentary probe into the airwave allocation scandal.
Justice Shivraj Patil, retired judge of the Supreme Court, has been appointed to go into airwave allocation since 2001. The panel was announced by Communication Minister Kapil Sibal Dec 9.
Advani flew in here on way to Udupi, about 60 km away, to attend the 80th birthday celebrations of Hindu religious leader Vishwesha Tirtha Swami.
Vishwesha Tirtha heads the Pejavar Mutt in Ududpi, known for its Hindu god Krishna’s temple, and has been active in the movement to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The BJP leader declined to comment on the political situation in Karnataka where the party’s first government has been embroiled in allegations of land scams.
He also refused to comment on the row between state Ombudsman N. Santosh Hegde, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, and BJP president Nitin Gadkari.
Hegde is upset because Gadkari had said in Bangalore Dec 7 that the ombudsman was acting as an opposition leader.
Hegde is investigating various scams during the BJP rule of last 30 months. These include illegal iron ore mining and various land allotments.
