Corporate hand in govt formation: NDA

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) today charged the government with having a council of ministers constituted under the influence of corporate lobbyists, and said only a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the 2G spectrum allocation scam could identify those who played a role in distributing portfolios during the government formation.

Making scathing attacks on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, L K Advani, the seniormost leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said even though JPC probes had been ordered for smaller issues in the past, this time the Congress party was adamant that there would no probe by parliamentarians.

“There is no other way out of this but a JPC. I believed that the Prime Minister decides which minister will get what portfolio but then we thought that the final decision was made by 10 Janpath (the residence of Sonia Gandhi). But now we know that corporate lobbyists were deciding the portfolios. The government hasn’t given a convincing reply why a JPC should not be constituted,” Advani alleged on Tuesday morning during a joint press conference of NDA leaders.

Announcing an “all out” war against the government till the Budget Session of Parliament, Advani said the 2G scam was not only confined to corruption within the government or certain people benefitting from it but also brought to light how the government was constituted and portfolios were decided.

“The Congress says that we didn’t allow Parliament to function. If we had not allowed Parliament to function then how did A Raja resign? It was only because of the Opposition’s demands that Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan was removed and Suresh Kalmadi also resigned from his small post that he was holding. It’s sheer stubbornness of the government that resulted in the stalemate in Parliament,” Advani said.

Top leaders of NDA have decided to hold 12 public meetings in different parts of the country to keep the various issues of corruption, including 2G, Commonwealth Games and Adarsh Housing Society, alive till the Budget Session of Parliament.

The rallies kick off in Delhi on December.