Move an attempt by Cong to protect Chidambaram, alleges the saffron party.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come down heavily on the Congress and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the latter initiated investigation into the 2G spectrum allocation during former telecom minister Pramod Mahajan’s tenure. Reacting to the CBI’s raids on offices of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone and senior government officials, the party termed it as the worst possible abuse of the investigating agency by the UPA government, which was only trying to protect the then finance minister P Chidambaram.
The BJP has decided to corner the government on the alleged role of Chidambaram in the winter session of Parliament which starts on November 22. It has demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asks the home minister to resign and allow the CBI to carry out investigate him thoroughly.
Senior BJP leaders are also planning to take up the finance ministry’s March 25 note which suggests that Chidambaram should have insisted on auctioning 2G spectrum licenses.
“These cases are nothing but political conspiracy and a last ditch attempt to save home minister P Chidambaram. The case has been filed to prevent a probe against Chidambaram. Recently, we had provided evidence against him and even the prime minister accepted that the 2G allocations were made only after Chidambaram gave his nod. So, both Raja and Chidambaram are equally guilty,” said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar, also a member of the Public Accounts Committee which is probing the spectrum scam.
Javadekar claimed that all the decisions taken during the NDA rule were taken by the Cabinet and no company was ever favoured or stopped from submitting applications for spectrum allocation.
Defending the CBI raids, Congress leaders said the investigation was being done under the supervision of Supreme Court and the party had no role in it. “Today’s raids were part of the investigation being conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court. The Congress has nothing to do with it. In fact, the BJP has always demanded investigation of decisions taken during its tenure but these raids are not concerning any party. It has to do with arriving at the truth,” said Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi.