Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members walked out of a joint Parliamentary committee (JPC) meeting on second generation (2G) spectrum, alleging that “foul language” was used against them by members of the Congress party when they demanded summoning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram before the panel.
JPC Chairman P C Chacko later said no foul language was used against any member of BJP and the walkout was “politically motivated”. However, BJP said if Chacko did not agree to summoning PM and Chidambaram, the investigation into the 2G scam would not be complete.
“We walked out of the meeting after Congress members used foul language when we demanded settling the issue of list of witness which has been pending for eight weeks now. We walked out today, we will take a call on resignation later,” said Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader, after coming out of the JPC meeting.
“We had demanded calling the prime minister and Finance Minister Chidambaram. We were accused by Congress members of turning JPC in to a kangaroo court,” he added.
The problem started when senior BJP leaders, Sinha and Jaswant Singh, asked Chacko when the committee would call PM and Chidambaram for questioning. Apart from Sinha, BJP leaders who walked out of the meeting were Jaswant Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Dharmendra Pradhan.
Soon after the question was asked, Congress members in the JPC, Deependra Hooda, Manish Tewari and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, accused Sinha and Singh of trying to vitiate the committee.
“The walkout by BJP members seemed preconceived and it was a political decision. There was no provocation and no member of the JPC used foul language against BJP leaders. When BJP leaders were about to leave, I told them please don’t leave the meeting but they didn’t stop,” said Chacko.
“We have not yet decided who should be summoned before JPC,” he added.
