A day after the finance ministry’s note to the Prime Minister’s Office on the 2G spectrum allocation scam came out in open, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Home Minister P Chidambaram to be “patient” till his return from the US next Tuesday.
The ruling Congress too backed its besieged Member of Parliament, even as the Opposition NDA sought Chidambaram’s removal from the cabinet. Even, the DMK, a key ally of the ruling UPA, chose to blame Chidambaram, who was finance minister during the 2G spectrum allocation in 2008, for the multi-crore scandal.
The PM called Chidambaram from Frankfurt, where he made an overnight halt on his way to New York, and discussed the issue for 20 minutes. Quoting sources, PTI said Singh was believed to have counselled his Cabinet colleague “to be patient” till he returns home from New York on September 27.
On Wednesday, a finance ministry’s note, which had the approval of the present Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, stated that Chidambaram in 2007-08 did not press for the auction of the 2G spectrum. The note suggested that the scam could have been avoided if the then finance ministry had insisted on the wavelength allocation through auction.
On Thursday, both Mukherjee and Chidambaram refused to answer questions on the issue. “The matter is subjudice,” Mukherjee told reporters in New York, where he is attending an India-US investors’ forum. At the function later, he said the matter would not have come to light but for the RTI Act passed in 2005 during the UPA-1 regime.
Chidambaram, who was touring the quake-hit areas in Sikkim on Thursday, also refused to take any questions on the issue. Later in a press statement he said, “The Prime Minister called me last night from Frankfurt and spoke to me. I have assured the Prime Minister that I shall not make any public statement on the subject until he returns to India.”
As for their party, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the latest twist was a “mischievous attempt” to create a rift between two constitutional functionaries.
“Without waiting for the proceedings to be completed, it is highly objectionable and inappropriate for Swamy or anyone else to pass premature judgment on the very same issue on which he is seeking relief,” he told reporters.
Chidambaram found additional defence coming in from a Cabinet colleague as Law Minister Salman Khurshid claimed there was nothing in the correspondence that raised doubts over the minister’s integrity. “I have now seen the paper. I want to make it very clear that as far as we in the government are concerned, there is no question mark whatsoever,” he said. “(There is) nothing of questionable nature on the conduct of Chidambaram.... I can say this with full authority. He deserves the support of the government.”
In Chennai, the DMK said its leader A Raja, currently jailed in the scam, has now been “vindicated”. DMK spokesperson T K Elangovan said the crux of the entire case is that Raja violated all advices by the PM and the finance ministry. “The letter (by finance ministry) now says the then finance minister had agreed to the fixed price, non-auction rule. This vindicates Raja’s stand.”
The BJP demanded the resignation of Chidambaram, and said it was “shameful” that he as the finance minister was “responsible” for the spectrum scam and even “misled” the prime minister. The party said the CBI should now question Chidambram.
“The ministry officials were telling Chidambaram to go for auctions. Why was it not done,” asked senior BJP leader M M Joshi. “There are clear contradictions here. I strongly demand that either Chidambaram should resign or he should be dismissed forthwith.”
The CPI(M) too demanded that the CBI probed the Chidambaram matter. The controversial note showed “mounting evidence” against him, a Politburo statement said.
AIAMK also said the finance ministry’s note proved Chidambaram’s involvement in the 2G scam and asked for his resignation. “The CBI should proceed against Chidambaram, as they did against A Raja,” party supremo J Jayalalithaa said.
