Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) The opposition chorus for sacking of Home Minister P. Chidambaram grew Thursday over his alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation under UPA-I, brought out by a finance ministry note to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi led the attack, demanding Chidambaram’s ouster and calling for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into his role in the 2G spectrum scam when he was finance minister in 2008.

Joshi was joined by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in making the demand. The BJP’s Arun Jaitley said the finance ministry note on the role of Chidambaram showed the UPA government was “at war with itself”.

Joshi’s call for Chidambaram’s sacking came after Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy Wednesday submitted to the Supreme Court documents indicating that Chidambaram, as the then finance minister, was involved in deciding the 2G spectrum price along with A. Raja, the then communications minister who is now in jail.

The documents filed by Swamy included a communication of Jan 30, 2008, by the department of economic affairs of the finance ministry recording the gist of the meeting between Chidambaram and Raja.

“This clearly proves that the role of P. Chidambaram as finance minister in the 2G scam… is responsible,” Joshi told reporters here.

“Either he should resign himself or he should be dismissed, I demand it strongly,” he said, adding that there should also be a CBI probe.

In its note to the Prime Minister’s Office, the finance ministry says Chidambaram could have prevented spectrum from being given away at throwaway prices if he had insistied on its auction — implying that presumptive losses worth thousands of crores could have thus been avoided.

The note, which was apparently shown to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and accessed by way by an application under the Right to Information Act, was prepared by a deputy secretary in the finance ministry and sent to the Prime Minister’s Office March 25.

The CPI-M, in a statement, called for a CBI probe and said that the finance ministry note to the PMO in March 2011 “has shown authoritatively that Chidambaram had cleared the allotment of licenses for 2G spectrum at the 2001 entry fee even though the finance secretary and his own ministry had pointed out the need for revision of the fee”.

Jayalalithaa, reacting to the developments, told reporters in Chennai that Chidambaram should be sacked for his involvement in the 2G spectrum scam.

“The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) should act against Chidambaram like it did against Raja,” Jayalalithaa said.

Jaitley, addressing a function, said: “The UPA government is increasingly at war with(in). On the one hand there is lack of trust with people, on the other there is lack of confidence between ministers. A civil war like situation has emerged.”

He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were “mute spectators”. “The legitimacy of the government has been eroded,” he added.