Centre to probe Ananth Kumar-Radia links

Allegations of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Ananth Kumar leaking classified information to corporate lobbyist Niira Radia during his tenure as Central minister will be probed by the government.

Union minister of state for parliamentary affairs V Narayanasamy on Monday said here that the Central government will investigate the allegations.

?The revelation that Radia is close to Kumar is a slap on the BJP’s face. The government will investigate whether any official decision were passed on to Radia by Kumar,? the minister said.

If found guilty, Kumar could be charged with an anti-national act, Narayanasamy added.

?If the allegation is true, then it would amount to being an anti-national act and the Centre would take action on it,? he said.

Rao Dheeraj Singh, Radia?s former partner, had alleged last week that Kumar and Radia knew each other well and that Kumar had given Radia access to classified information when the BJP leader was civil aviation minister in the NDA tenure in New Delhi.

On the Parliament stalemate over demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G scam, Narayanasamy said it was ?undemocratic? on part of the Opposition parties.

He said Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has called a meeting of all parties’ leaders in New Delhi on December 30 and 31 to sort out the logjam.

?Many of the parties demanding a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam may not be able to have their members in it. A party should have at least 17 members in parliament to be included in the JPC,” he said.

“The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has sufficient powers to look into the issue of spectrum allotment and the loss incurred to the government from it. The PAC is looking into the issue for the past eight months,” Narayanasamy said.