Parliament insulted by former judge's spectrum probe: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party, adamant on a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the telecom spectrum controversy, has rejected the government’s decision to have a retired Supreme Court judge probe the matter, as a breach of parliamentary privilege.

“This is an unprecedented development. It is not even a Commission of Inquiry that has the authority to call people for questioning but is only an executive inquiry. What Parliament should have done is being done by a retired judge,” said Arun Jaitley, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

“The government has made the announcement at a time when Parliament is going on. They could have tabled it in Parliament but they decided to announce it out of Parliament. There has been a stalemate on the issue for the past three weeks. This issue will not be over...we will take it to the people once the Parliament session is over,” Jaitley added.

The opposition contends the demand for a JPC was not only to investigate 2G spectrum allocation but also to look into the larger question of governance. “There was the appointment of a particular person from a particular political party, given the portfolio to form a policy that could benefit a few and which caused huge loss to the government. The entire process can only be inquired into by a JPC,” argued Jaitley.