BJP stays away from JPC meet

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday stayed away from the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) panel's meeting on the 2G spectrum scam in demand that Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram must depose before it.

The BJP is sticking to its demand for deposition of Chidambaram in the 2G scam probe. It also demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should also appear before the JPC.

Earlier on Oct 11, the Left Front leaders walked out of a meeting of the JPC over the issue of calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram as witnesses in the case.

Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Gurudas Dasgupta, who was demanding that both the PM and Chidambaram depose as witnesses in connection with the case, walked out of the meeting.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) had supported the decision of the Left leaders.

The BJP members, who are part of the JPC examining the 2G spectrum allocation scandal, walked out of a meeting of the panel on Sept 18 as their demand of finalising the list of witness in connection to the case was rejected.

Touted to be the biggest corruption scandal of independent India, the 2G scam, allegedly masterminded by former telecom minister A Raja, pertains to a biased distribution of mobile airwaves and operating licenses, in lieu of kickbacks, to telcos that could have cost the treasury up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore in lost revenue, according to the government´s auditors CAG.

The court on May 15 granted bail to Raja who was languishing in the Tihar jail for 15 months in the 2G case.