New Delhi, Aug 1 (IANS) Blaming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for trying to distance himself from the 2G scam, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday said it wanted an immediate discussion on the issue by cancelling the question hour in parliament.
However, since parliament was adjourned for the day, the issue will be taken up Tuesday.
‘The statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) yesterday, on the eve of parliament session, was about distancing himself from anything in the 2G spectrum allotment and subsequent scam…but the evidences from documents and circumstantial evidences point that he and the then finance minister P. Chidambaram were equally party to the decision,’ BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
‘Everybody wants to distance themselves from this decision. That is why we moved a notice about an immediate dicussion on this by cancelling the question hour. But somehow, the house is adjourned till tomorrow (Tuesday). The issue will be very much there tomorrow,’ he added.
The PMO Sunday strongly rebutted allegations in a leading publication, India Today newsmagazine, that Manmohan Singh had ‘looked the other way’ despite knowing of irregularities in the 2G spectrum and telecom licenses allocation.
‘It was well known at that time there were conflicting interests between existing operators and new entrants. The prime minister felt that this matter required detailed examination and deliberation by the department of telecom in consultation with TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and others,’ said the PMO statement Sunday evening.
The prime minister Monday said that those matters which are in court, are best left at that. ‘I hope that matters which are in courts, those are best left for the courts to decide,’ he said.
