Congress top brass meet at PM residence

The top brass of the Congress is meeting at the residence of the Prime Minister on Sunday night to formulate a strategy in Parliament deadlocked by Opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G scam.

TV reports said Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister AK Antony and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee are closeted in a meeting of the core group at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Parliament has been adjourned till Monday after uproar over the demand for a JPC.

“Our demand has been and will continue to be for a JPC,” AIADMK MP V. Maitreyan said as both houses of the Parliament were adjourned after uproarious scenes on Nov 19.

The standoff continued between the Opposition and the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the Congress which ruled out a JPC so far arguing that the CAG report on the 2G scam- which indicted former telecom minister A Raja for costing the exchequer a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore by illogical spectrum allocation- will go to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.