Spectrum scam gets 30-member JPC

Heated exchanges followed between the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party while the Lok Sabha on Thursday passed a resolution to form a 30-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the 2G telecom spectrum allocation scam.

The JPC will examine the policies, their interpretation by successive governments, including decisions of the Union Cabinet and the consequences thereof, in the allocation and pricing of telecom licenses and spectrum from 1998 (the Vajpayee-BJP regime on). It will also examine irregularities and aberrations from 1998 to 2009 and recommend on preventing a repeat.

From the Lok Sabha, the Congress has packed the body with V Kishore Chandra Deo, Paban Singh Ghatowar, Jai Prakash Agarwal, Deepender Singh Hooda, P C Chacko, Manish Tewari, Nirmal Khatri and Adhir Chowdhury. The DMK has fielded its former minister T R Baalu. The BJP has deputed Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Harin Pathak and Gopinath Munde.

The JPC has been asked to give its report by the end of the monsoon session (July) of Parliament. Even as the government conceded a JPC, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee noted the accounting issues are already being seen by the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) and Parliament’s own Public Accounts Committee. The criminality part is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation and other agencies like the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate, while the policy aspect was looked into by a commission. Indicating the government had already done what was needed.

Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj retorted at the absurdity of stonewalling for months a demand by the entire opposition for a probe into a matter involving the jailing of the minister in charge and CAG strictures.