Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 2 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday demanded the immediate resignation of Home Minister P. Chidambaram after the Supreme Court in a verdict cancelled 122 telecom licences issued when he was the finance minister.

Top BJP leaders spoke out in chorus against Chidambaram, who was the finance minister when the 2G licences were allotted, and sought clarifications from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

“The finance minister is the custodian of the public exchequer. It is the prime responsibility of finance minister to ensure that there is no loot of public money,” Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley told reporters in Lucknow.

“The prime minister had said Chidambaram is his valued colleague and what he did is right. That decision of the government to allot 2G licences has been declared illegal and unconstitutional by the highest court of the country…It was not a person’s decision, it was the government’s decision. The telecom minister and finance minister had a special role (in the decision),” Jaitley said.

BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi to clarify on the issue.

“Will the prime minister take some accountability or keep silent as always? Will Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, the two most powerful leaders in the Congress, speak about massive corruption in this government or maintain a conspicuous silence,” Prasad asked.

He also demanded to know if the prime minister would take action or continue to express his confidence in Chidambaram.

Prasad’s party colleague Balbir Punj, echoing him, said, “If the government has any standards left, they should ask for the resignation of Chidambaram immediately.” He added, “If he refuses, he should be sacked.”

The main opposition party’s reaction come after the Supreme Court ordered cancelling of all 122 licenses granted to telecom companies during the tenure of then communications minister A. Raja. The order came on a plea of Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy.

However, the apex court left another petition by Swamy, seeking investigation into the role of Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum case, with a trial court, adding that the CBI is free to investigate if it chooses to.

“The CBI has elaborately argued for days together that the role of Mr. Chidambaram need not be investigated. Therefore, the upfront of today’s order is that his role has to be investigated. The special court has already taken up the matter,” Prasad said.

He also said the court verdict had made the nation proud.

“We believe India’s reputation has grown after this verdict, the common Indian is full of pride today,” he said, adding that several crucial policy decisions of the UPA government lacked transparency and credibility.

“…Therefore, the Supreme Court has been constrained to take these decisions which have been found to have severe and massive irregularities.”