Lok Sabha adopts JPC report on 2G scam

The Lok Sabha Monday adopted the JPC report on 2G scam exonerating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram of any wrongdoing, while blaming former telecom minister A. Raja for the faulty allocation of spectrum.

The DMK, Raja's party and former Congress ally, walked out in protest.

Speaker Meira Kumar put the report up for approval of the House and it was passed by voice vote after P.C. Chacko, who headed the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) that conducted the probe and authored the report, tabled it.

The speaker also rejected a notice by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Basudeb Acharia for a debate on the report.

Both opposition parties termed the report as "fraud" and "fabricated".

"It was unprecedented. The manner in which the report was finalised was in violation of rules and norms of the House," Sinha said.

"This is a perverse and fraud report," said CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta. "The report is a fraud as it does not take into account the role of finance minister and others. It has only found that one villain that is Raja," Dasgupta added.

The leaders said the speaker's move not to allow a debate was not right.

"Speaker did not allow us to raise points of order. MPs have rights to raise points of order under specific rules but she overruled it," Sinha said.

The report, adopted by the majority of JPC members Sep 27, disagreed with the Comptroller and Auditor General's finding that the 2G scam caused a loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.

It also charged the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government (1998-2004) of causing losses worth of Rs.40,000 crore because of the telecom policy it pursued while allocating spectrum.

Chacko submitted the report on the 2G scam along with six dissenting notes to the speaker Oct 29 after the parliamentary committee inquired into the scam for 19 months.

A. Raja had urged the speaker to return the JPC report on the 2G scam, saying it was partisan and with political overtones.

Raja said his dissent note submitted to the panel chief April 22, 2013, was not included in the final report.

BJP members of the JPC had earlier boycotted the committee's meetings over demands to call the prime minister and the finance minister for deposition. They later started attending the sessions.