JPC report: Govt asks opposition to refrain from speculation

Govt is under fire from opposition over the report, with the BJP saying it was a 'Congress document'

Under attack from the BJP and other opposition parties over the draft JPC report on 2G scam, the government today said the report is not yet "finalised" and requested the media and the opposition to "refrain" from "speculation".

"The JPC report is yet to be finalised. JPC is going to meet, and once it is finalised, it shall be presented to Parliament. And that's the time we shall debate it because we will have to look at what reasons are in the report for the conclusion that they have arrived at and we don't know either at the moment," Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said.

"So I request the opposition and the media to refrain from speculating and to wait so that a proper debate can take place, both within Parliament and outside it," he said.

The minister said, "We are now committing the same mistake as we did in the past. Without the CAG submitting its report to Parliament, the oppostion started protesting, newspapers started writing well in advance and leakages of the report made public discourse very difficult.

"So I would suggest we should not commit the same mistake," he said.

The government is under fire from the opposition over the draft JPC report, with the BJP saying that it appeared like a "Congress document" where attempts have been made to save its leaders including the Prime Minister.

The JPC report, which was circulated among members yesterday before its adoption on April 25, gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 2G spectrum allocation, saying he was "misled" by the then Telecom Minister A Raja whose assurances stood "belied".

The report also rubbishes the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore estimated by CAG, saying it was "ill-conceived".