Panaji/New Delhi: Firing a fresh salvo at
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP leader L K Advani on Wednesday demanded answers from him on PMO`s role in the controversial
2G note issue.
"The country has to know how much was PMO`s
responsibility and how is the finance minister responsible,"
Advani told reporters in Panaji.
The note had sought to suggest that P Chidambaram, as
the Finance Minister in 2008, could have prevented the 2G scam
by insisting on auctioning the spectrum.
Advani claimed it was "evident" that Chidambaram had a
role to play by not insisting on auction of the spectrum and
that the Prime Minister should have ordered an inquiry against
the minister instead of expressing confidence in him.
Questioning Advani`s demand, Law Minister Salman Khurshid
said as the case was already before the courts, a "parallel
trial" cannot take place outside.
"A parallel trial cannot go on outside the courts...
There is a basic thing that I want Mr Advani to know, that
there is a principle of sub judice that you cannot discuss
what`s happening in the court," he told reporters in Delhi.
Advani, who is in Goa as part of his anti-graft yatra,
said, "If the PMO understood rightly that Chidambaram did not
take preventive and remedial measures in time in order to
prevent loss of public revenue in 2G allocation, then it was
incumbent upon the Prime Minister to permit investigation into
his role instead of expressing confidence in Chidambaram that
he is innocent."
He said fresh facts have come out through Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee`s September 26 letter to the Prime
Minister contending that "The Finance Ministry note on 2G
spectrum was in fact prepared in consultation with the Cabinet
Secretariat and on the insistence of the Prime Minister?s
Office."
PTI
