2G scam: BJP criticizes Manmohan Singh for ?silence? on Parl logjam

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday slammed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his ?complete silence? on the Parliament logjam over Opposition?s demand for a JPC probe into 2G Spectrum scam.

The BJP also indicated that it could bring privilege motion against Telecom minister Kapil Sibal for announcing a new probe into the 2G scam when the Parliament is on session, though Sibal claimed that he was not at wrong.

Hitting out against the prime minister, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, ?He can’t be absent from a national debate in or out of Parliament, particularly when the whole country is extremely interested in knowing the real truth… on crucial domestic issues, a Prime Minister should not be seen to be losing his will to rule.?

On Singh?s trip to Belgium and Germany during the Parliament session, Jaitley said, ?It’s not merely going abroad. Besides this entire impasse, there are two or three other factors which are visible after this stalemate. The most visible factors have been the complete absence and silence of the Prime Minister on the issue of a major stalemate and crisis which this country is facing.?

He, however, added that foreign tours should be avoided during Parliament sessions as far as possible, though prime ministers may have to travel abroad occasionally even when the House is in session.

Clarifying that the BJP did not want the stalemate in the Parliament to continue, Jaitley added that it will remain unrelenting on its demand for a JPC probe into the 2G scam.

He said the BJP could bring a privilege motion against Sibal for announcing the new probe while the House is in session.

?Our Lok Sabha colleagues are seriously examining the possibility (to move a privilege motion against Sibal)…the motion can be brought in the House of which the minister is a member,? Jaitely, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, added.

Another senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, terming Sibal?s announcement as ?highly objectionable and may invite privilege?, said, ?The general practice is not to make any policy announcement outside the House when Parliament is in session.?

Sibal, however, sought to dismiss the Opposition charge and maintained that he had not done any wrong.

He maintained that the new inquiry commission was an administrative decision and not a policy one.

?The BJP’s parliamentary privilege is that they will not let parliament run and won’t let my ministry run either.

I wish the leader of the Opposition had been more thoughtful when he enunciated the law of parliamentary privileges. Vision gets blurred in enunciating the law when one is obsessed with politics,? Sibal said.

Earlier, the BJP said it would continue to oppose the United Progressive Alliance government’s decision to set up a one-man judicial commission to probe the alleged irregularities in the allocation of 2G-spectrum.

BJP and the Left parties have already stalled Parliament for past three weeks.

The government on Thursday said retired Supreme Court judge Shivaraj V Patil would probe the alleged scam since 2001-to- 2009.

Significantly, the BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was in power between 1998-2004.

The BJP alleged that the government’s decision had been influenced by Ratan Tata’s alleged remarks that many of the flip flops in the telecom policy took place when the NDA was in power.

Tata’s comment came after BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrashekher had alleged that the Tata group had been a beneficiary from the out of turn allotment of spectrum, which Tata denied.