Kolkata: Scenting success on Opposition
clamour for a Joint Parliamentary Committee, BJP on Tuesday upped
the ante demanding that the JPC should probe all
scandals like CWG the Adarsh Housing scam besides the 2G scam.
Addressing a party rally here, senior BJP leader L K
Advani also attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying he
sympathised with him and described him as "weak".
Seeking widening of the scope of JPC, he said,
"All cases of corruption, including 2G spectrum, CWG and
defence land scam (Adarsh Housing) should be probed by it."
The BJP veteran said that a JPC probe into 2G spectrum
allocation would expose the DMK but Congress' "involvement" in
CWG and Adarsh Housing scams' would be revealed if a JPC was
formed to investigate all corruption cases.
Advani's comments seeking broadening the ambit of the
JPC probe come amidst indications that the government may have
made up its mind on setting up the JPC to ensure that the
budget session of Parliament beginning next week runs smoothly
unlike the winter session which was washed out.
"Not a single day passes without a corruption case
cropping up," Advani said.
On Prime Minister, whom he had attacked in earlier
election campaigns, he said "I feel pity for
Manmohan Singh, not angry. I have seen prime ministers since
the time of Nehru, but I have never seen such a weak prime
minister).
"Many feel bad if he is called a weak PM. It is nice to
be a gentleman. But if the gentleman is weak and becomes a
prime minister, he will not do anything to tackle corruption
however big it is."
Advani said for the first time a Prime Minister of the
country had to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court--on the
2G spectrum case.
He claimed that unlike Congress-ruled states, the
states having BJP administrations were corruption-free.
Referring to media reports about tapping of over one lakh
telephones over a period, Advani said that there is a clear
Supreme Court order that telephones of political leaders
cannot be tapped without permission of the Union Home
ministry.
"Telephones of terrorists, criminals can be tapped if
there is evidence. But without approval of Union Home
Secretary, telephones of political leaders could not be
tapped."
"Let the government spell out who those people are
whose telephones have been tapped," Advani said demanding
proper inquiry into phone-tapping.
Targeting the Marxist government in West Bengal, the
BJP veteran said, ''Maoism has flourished as an offshoot of
Marxism''.
"Time has come to liberate West Bengal from Marxist
rule. Marxist ideology has no future. The future of the state
rests on the development".
Visualising a non-Marxist government in West Bengal in
the next Assembly polls, Advanai said, "When I will be
visiting the state next, there will be a different state
government."
The rally followed a meeting of BJP's national
officer-bearers in which top party leaders, including L K
Advani, party president Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath
Singh, besides chief ministers of Jharkhand Arjun Munda, B S
Yedurappa (Karnataka), Raman Singh (Chhatisgarh) and Ramesh
Pokhryal Nishank (Uttarakhand) took part.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 18:44