With no sign of the government relenting on the demand for a joint parliamentary probe (JPC) on the controversial 2G spectrum allocation on the floor of the House, the non-NDA and non-UPA parties took their battle outside the two Houses of Parliament. The “secular Opposition” as they would like to call it on Tuesday staged a dharna in front of the Gandhi statue demanding a JPC probe into the 2G affair.
The MPs belonging to CPI, CPI(M), RSP, Forward Bloc, RLD, AIADMK, MDMK, BJD, TDP and AGP squatted at the main gate of Parliament nearly for an hour. They had placards in their hand that read “Accept demand for joint parliamentary committee”, “Allow Parliament to function to discuss burning issues like price rise.”
When asked by reporters if there was a need for a separate programme from the BJP, CPI(M) leader Yechury said, “There is a credibility issue due to the Karnataka land scam issue with the BJP.” CPI leader Gurudas Das Gupta too joined him and declared, “No truck with the BJP as we shall never go along with the BJP.”
Making a case for a JPC over the 2G spectrum scam, Mr Yechury said, “There was a parliamentary probe on lesser corruption issues in the past. But this time the issues are bigger but still government is not agreeing for the probe. Why the government is so adamant? We do not understand.”
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BJP defends JPC stand
Age Correspondent
New Delhi
Dec. 7: The BJP on Tuesday claimed the decision to demand a JPC probe into corruption cases was taken when none of the Opposition members, including Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, was allowed to raise the issue in Parliament. The party claimed that though Winter Session of Parliament practically remained non-functional it helped the Opposition to take up the corruption issue more “effectively.”
Earlier during the day, BJP parliamentary party chairman L.K. Advani addressed party MPs where he told them that “initially we never wanted to raise this (corruption) issue in such a manner.”