BJP rebuffs Cong, ups ante on JPC report on 2G

Government's effort to end impasse in Parliament by reaching out to BJP for early passage of key finance bills today came a cropper as the opposition indicated that it is unlikely to cooperate unless it is assured that JPC chairman P C Chacko's draft report on 2G will be rejected.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath met NDA Working Chairperson L K Advani to find a way out of the stalemate. With only nine working days left in this session, Nath sought BJP's support to run the House to pass the Rail Budget and the Finance Bill.
Sources said Advani suggested that Nath discuss the issue with Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, who is campaiging in Karnataka, on Monday. But he emphasised that BJP is firm that the controversial JPC draft report on 2G spectrum scam should not be adopted.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said "confrontation and cooperation" cannot go hand in hand. He maintained that the CBI affidavit on the coal probe status report had "smashed" the government's claim that there is no interference in the probe agency's functioning.
All these issues will be raised by BJP in Parliament, he said.
BJP also trashed the Congress demand to the Lok Sabha Speaker that three JPC members, namely, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Ravi Shankar Prasad be removed from the panel as they were a part of the Group of Ministers that looked into the telecom policy during the NDA regime.

The continuing stand-off may force the government to get the Finance Bill and the Rail Budget passed in the din.

BJP is especialy miffed by the allegation in the JPC report that the telecom policy followed by the erstwhile Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had led to the loss of Rs 42,000 crore.
The Congress demand for expulsion of the three BJP members from the JPC has aggravated the crisis.
Jaswant Singh dismissed this Congress demand as one borne out of "frustration, incompetence and feeble memory".
"The Congress party came up with a bizzare and most outlandish demand that three members of the JPC be expelled from this committee on grounds of alleged conflict of interest. This is entirely untenable. It is two years too late," he said.