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With the support of outside allies Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP), and the absence of Janata Dal - United (JD-U) members, the government on Friday managed to have its way in the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) on the 2G telecom spectrum scam, when the panel approved the draft report giving a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, with a 16-11 vote in its favour.
Eleven opposition members, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP's) five and one each of Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Communist Party of India (CPI), CPI - Marxist (CPI-M), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) voted against the JPC report that accused former Telecom Minister A Raja of "misleading" the Prime Minister and "belying" the assurances given to him.
Of the 30 members in the committee, three members, including Gopinath Munde from the BJP, and Sharad Yadav and Ramchandra Prasad Singh of the JD - U, were absent. Of the 27 present, the ruling side got the votes of the Congress (11), Nationalist Congress Party (1), BSP (2), SP (1) and a nominated member from the Rajya Sabha, Ashok Ganguly. Panel chief P C Chacko also voted as a Congress member. Nationalist Congress Party member Y P Trivedi was not present in the committee room when votes were being cast. He later gave Chacko a written statement supporting the draft report.
Attacking the outcome, BJP leader and member of the committee Yashwant Sinha said a contrived majority had been "unashamedly" used to adopt a report based on "wrong facts, falsehood and prejudicial" findings without the consideration of the Committee.
"The government will be asked to table an action taken report on the JPC findings within three months of its presentation to the Speaker," Chacko told reporters after the meeting.
In a meeting which lasted a little over an hour, Chacko overruled demands by opposition members to adopt the report after "more consultations". Those who pressed for more discussions included DMK's T R Baalu, CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta and Sinha.
Members who wish to give dissent notes on the report, which rubbished the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore estimated by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and termed it as "ill conceived", have been given time till October 10.
