Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) The political war of words over Home Minister P. Chidamabaram’s alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam flared up Saturday with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding his resignation and Congress leader Digvijay Singh retorting that the BJP was attacking the minister as he had initiated action in the right-wing terror cases.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is currently on a visit to Washington to attend the World Bank-IMF meetings, said that he will comment on the controversy, generated by a note from his ministry to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), only after returning to India.

Joining the row Saturday, BJP president Nitin Gadkari demanded Chidambaram resign or be sacked.

“Chidambaram should either resign himself from the cabinet or prime minister should sack him,” Gadkari, who is visiting Chhattisgarh, told reporters at Raipur airport.

BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, a former finance minister, said: “The proof against Chidambaram is overwhelming. The government has been soft on Chidambaram. Chidambaram’s place is where A. Raja (the jailed former communication minister) is, the same cell in Tihar Jail.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acted on Chidambaram’s advice on the 2G spectrum allocation, and his silence showed his approval, Sinha told reporters here.

Chidambaram has been on the opposition firing line after a note sent by the finance ministry to the PMO was revealed in a Right to Information (RTI) reply. The note, sent in March this year, said that 2G spectrum could have been auctioned, instead of allotted, if the then finance minister Chidambaram had stood firm in 2008.

The minister, however, got strong support from Digvijay Singh - several times a critic of the minister’s anti-Maoist policies and “intellectual arrogance” - who now described Chidambaram as a “man of competence and integrity”.

Digvijay Singh accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of targeting the home minister because he had expedited investigation in terror cases “involving people” associated with the orgainsation.

Condemning Sinha’s remarks that Chidambaram deserves to be in the same cell at Tihar where Raja was lodged, Singh said there are no charges against Chidambaram.

As the BJP extended its criticism to Manmohan Singh, Minister of State in the PMO V. Narayanasamy came forward to defend the prime minister.

“Whenever the matter (2G spectrum issue) was brought to the notice of the prime minister, he immediately acted on it. Apart from that, the prime minister has impeccable integrity, and is honest to the core,” Narayanasamy told reporters here.

Sinha said: “The prime minister will defend Chidambaram because if Chidambaram is touched, the prime minister will be touched. Like with Raja, when Chidambaram goes to jail, he (Manmohan Singh) will stop defending Chidambaram and will start defending only himself.”
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BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said the 2G scam occurred because the prime minister allowed the “loot”.

“The 2G scam is not only DMK scam but of the whole Congress and UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government. Prime minister was not only a mute spectator but he allowed the loot,” Javadekar told reporters in Gurgaon.

Hitting back, Digvijay Singh said the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had changed the policy of allotment of telecom circles through competitive tendering introduced by the Congress government of Narsimha Rao.

“They introduced the provisions of license fee and revenue sharing. Did no loss occur due to this? The CAG has also reported on that decision and quantified the loss by change of policy. Should they also not go to Tihar Jail by the same logic?” he asked.

Meanwhile, Mukherjee, who will be arriving in New York Saturday night, told a group of Indian journalists in Washington that he will speak on the issue only when he reaches India Monday.

“I told you that my question is only addressed to that (2G). What is to be told there, I will tell it there (in India), not now,” he said.

Mukherjee is expected to meet Manmohan Singh, who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly session, Sunday and explain the situation why the note was sent.

Congress circles said that party president Sonia Gandhi has told all leaders - from the prime minister to the spokespersons - to put up a coordinated defence of Chidambaram to stop further slide in the image of the 28-month-old UPA-II government.