The main Opposition BJP on Thursday demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should also include in its probe the role of home minister P. Chidambaram, who was the finance minister when the 2G spectrum was allocated. The party also claimed that it was ready to take the “fight” against the 2G issue to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).
Addressing a party function on the 2G spectrum issue, senior BJP leader and JPC member Yashwant Sinha said “Till he (Mr Chidambaram) does not come under the CBI investigation into 2G scam, the whole truth will not come out. CBI should probe his role. He is a master of obfuscation.” Mr Sinha was also a member of the last Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The party also held Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress leadership responsible for the disruption of the last PAC meeting.
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Geelani in house arrest
Age Correspondent
Srinagar
May 5: Kashmir’s hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was on Thursday evening placed under house arrest here soon after he issued an appeal to the Muslims of the Valley and beyond to hold nimaz-e-jinaza gaibana or funeral prayer in absentia for slain Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Reiterating that he has died a martyr’s death, the octogenarian leader said that the Al Qaeda chief gave up luxuries of life to fight for a cause and to uphold the honour and dignity of Muslim ummah (nation). “He was not an ordinary individual but an ideologue and symbol of heroism and the resistance movement against the American imperialism. He was against the US because of its anti Muslim and anti-Islam policies and actions. Given the wealth he possessed, he could have lived a luxurious life with his family but he sacrificed everything for the Muslim cause and we must pay back a little, at least, by holding special prayer meetings for him,” he said in a statement.