New Delhi:
The process of setting up a parliamentary committee to investigate the country's largest scam has begun in Parliament. Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal moved a motion in the Rajya Sabha for the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the 2G spectrum scam. In its entire history, India has seen only four JPCs - this is the fifth.
The committee, to be made up of 30 members, will have a majority of representatives from the Congress and its allies; the balance will come from different Opposition parties.
The telecom scam, according to the government's auditor, may have cost India upto Rs 1.76 lakh crore. It saw companies getting mobile network licenses at throwaway prices. Since the auditor presented its report in November, the telecom controversy has battered the government on a near-daily basis.
Mr Sibal in Parliament today echoed the line of defence that the Prime Minister has taken in recent weeks -that the basic policies followed for the allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008 were not faulty, but their implementation was faulty. The first-come first-serve policy - which was chosen instead of an auction of valuable spectrum - is the main reason for India turning into a nation of cellphone users, said Mr Sibal. "The process of implementation was manipulated," said Mr Sibal.
His remarks did not find much resonance with the BJP. "I cannot hide my disappointment with Mr Sibal's opening remarks," said the BJP's Arun Jaitley, "they had an inbuilt rationalization" of the telecom scam.
The man who allegedly crossed all lines to favour companies who paid him handsomely in return - former Telecom Minister A Raja - is now in jail. He resigned in November. His party, the DMK, which is a key member of the central government, has said it does not believe he is guilty.
In an attempt to deflect at least part of the blame, the Congress has said that the policies followed in the allocation of spectrum were introduced by the NDA which preceded Dr Manmohan Singh's government in the first part of the decade.