New Delhi: In the wake of questions being
raised about the presence of two former NDA ministers in the
JPC on 2G spectrum scam, BJP on Friday said it expects the probe
panel to work "expeditiously" in finding out the guilty and
not divert from the main issue.
In its very first meeting yesterday, the JPC took up
the issue of membership of Jaswant Singh and Yaswant Sinha in
the parliamentary panel. The two were ministers in the
erstwhile NDA government(1998-2004) and some members are of
the opinion that since the JPC is investigating the Telecom
policy of this period as well, the two should not continue.
The matter is being referred to Lok Sabha Speaker
Meira Kumar.
BJP reacted sharply to suggestions that its two party
leaders should not continue in the panel but refrained from
speaking against JPC chairperson P C Chacko.
"We expect that the JPC works expeditiously. It should
not divert issues. As a nominee of the NDA who sits in the JPC
is our concern," Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun
Jaitley said.
His counterpart in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj maintained
that it would not be fair to comment on the JPC`s functioning
but said this matter was a "non-issue".
"This should be a non-issue as the resolution for
formation of a JPC was moved in the Lok Sabha by the Leader of
the House (Pranab Mukherjee). It was adopted after a
discussion. Nobody brought it up then. This is an attempt to
deflect from the main issue," Swaraj said.
BJP maintained that the government, which was
unwilling on the formation of a JPC, had to yield to the
Opposition demand and set up the probe panel on the allotment
of 2G spectrum to private players.
"We hope that the Committee (JPC) would function
expeditiously and discover the truth. However, some political
parties are keen to derail its functioning on extraneous
issues rather than investigate the matter," Jaitley said.
He was alluding to the raking up the issue of Singh
and Sinha being in the JPC.
"The debate on motion of constituting the JPC
indicated that the government`s strategy was to deflect the
issue from the lapses of 2008 and shift the focus elsewhere,"
Jaitley said.
PTI
