2G Scam: Sonia Gandhi rules out JPC demand

New Delhi : Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday ruled out the Opposition’s demand for setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum allocation scam, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.

Gandhi, who is also the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), told a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP), that there was no need for JPC when the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) were looking into it, besides a separate probe being conducted by a retired Supreme court judge with the apex court monitoring the progress of the entire investigation.

The rejection of the demand by the main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Left parties has stalled parliament proceedings for 26 days that includes the winer session.

Gandhi, however, said the party was determined to fight the corruption.

She said, ” the BJP should look at its own track record. The main opposition party should not denigrate Parliament.”

She criticised the BJP over the issue of corruption while referring to the Karnataka developments and the circumstances in which Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa was allowed to continue despite charges of corruption in land allotment against him.

The controversy over the alleged scam in 2G spectrum allocation that led to resignation of A Raja as Telecom Minister, sparked off after the Adarsh Housing society gaffe that saw Congress Ashok Chavan put down his papers and Prithviraj Chavan replace him as Maharashtra Chief Minister–both incidents raising huge uproars and eating into the time of normal proceedings.

The Commonwealth Games (CWG) related scams also took time of parliament.