Insisting that the health of every institution in the country is at stake in the light leaked Niira Radia tapes, senior BJP leader and leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley has said, only a JPC probe can unravel the various facets of alleged 2G spectrum allocation scam, including the “role of power brokers” in allocation of telecom portfolio.
Conceding for the first time since the logjam began in Parliament that he had an “element of regret” over washout of the Winter Session, Mr Jaitley said, “But then, look at the way public opinion, media, Parliament, have today accepted that there is a huge case of corruption as far as India is concerned.”
Sharing his views on the issue in an interactive programmes on a TV channel, Mr Jaitley said, “Why was there insistence to give this (Telecom) portfolio to just one person within one party? What is the role of power brokers within the entire system in deciding all this? How was this policy framed? How was this loss caused?”
Impressing upon the need for the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe, he said, “If those (Niira Radia) tapes, to media, to judges to the political system, to government formation are considered, the health of every institution is at stake.... Who else but the JPC can investigate all this?”
Asked if the JPC demand was justified at the cost of paralysing the Parliament for 23 days, the BJP leader said that the larger gain has been much more as the country has been made to realise that corruption in high places is a key issue.
Mr Jaitley disagreed that it was merely because of the CAG report that the matter had attained focus.