New Delhi: The Left, which has two
members in the JPC on the 2G spectrum scam, on Thursday said that any
decision on summoning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would
depend on how the situation develops when the Joint
Parliamentary Committee starts functioning.
"If the need be...let us see when it comes, but all
this is in anticipation. We don`t know how the situation will
develop once the JPC starts functioning", CPI(M) leader
Sitaram Yechury told reporters when asked if the Prime
Minister would be summoned before the JPC.
At the same time, he also made it clear that no
Parliamentary Standing Committee could summon any minister or
Prime Minister without the approval of the Speaker.
On the terms of reference of the JPC, Yechury
expressed satisfaction these have been "on the lines of what
we had suggested", that is to go into the entire gamut of
issues so as to ascertain how the entire system was
manipulated to allow a scam of such magnitude to take place
and recommend measures to plug the loopholes.
Maintaining that the CPI(M) got one seat each from the
two Houses of Parliament in the JPC in terms of its numbers,
he said "in the larger interests and in the interests of Left
unity, (CPI leader) Gurudas Dasgupta had been given the seat
in Lok Sabha".
To further questions on the issue, he said the Left
Front government in West Bengal, which has been in power for
35 years, was the first coalition experiment in the country
that has been "run so successfully".
In six of its seven terms in the state, the CPI(M)
could have itself formed government as it had a majority on
its own. "But we have been steadfast in maintaining a Left
Front government for the sake of Left unity".
He also demanded thorough probes into the Commonwealth
Games scam, saying now since government officials have been
arrested, all aspects of the irregularities should be enquired
into thoroughly.
PTI
