Jaswant Singh suggested JPC probe should be wound up: Chacko

Senior Congress leader P C Chacko today claimed that BJP leader and former Union Minister Jaswant Singh had suggested that the JPC probe on the 2G Spectrum scam should be wound up as he felt that spectrum allocation had paved the way for a telecom revolution in the country.
Singh, who was a BJP member in the 30-member Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G spectrum issue, voiced his views when the JPC probe had reached its half-way mark, said Chacko while sharing his experience as the JPC head.
"Jaswant Singh was an eminent parliamentarian. After completing the examination of many, including CAG Vinod Rai by the panel, Singh told me --Mr Chacko, why don't you recommend your Prime Minister to wind up this probe? What happened in India is a telecome revolution," Chacko told a meet-the-press programme, organised by the Ernakulam press club here.

He made the claim a day after former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and all other accused were acquitted in the 2G spectrum allocation scam cases by a special court in New Delhi, which held that the prosecution "miserably failed" to prove the charges.
The former Lok Sabha MP hailed the verdict acquitting Raja and Kanimozhi, saying it was just a charge to defame the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA government led by him.
Accusing the then Comptroller and Auditor General of overstepping its jurisdiction by calculating presumptive loss, Chacko said this was an interpretation by the constitutional body.

Scrutiny by various agencies have now held that the loss calculation made by it was erroneous and presumptive calculation was not correct, he said.

"CAG is only expected to assess the actual loss to the exchequer. But here overstepping its jurisdiction the CAG made an assessment on the basis of presumptive loss," Chacko said.
He said that during the examination by the panel he had asked Rai about the controversial presumptive calculation by the CAG overstepping its jurisdiction.
Rai merely said "I calculated presumptive loss," he said.
Chacko also hit out at BJP on the issue, asking why had not its government so far rejected the report submitted by JPC if it had differences on its findings.

"BJP has majority in Parliament. Five members of the BJP, including Minister in the government Ravi Shankar Prasad were members of JPC. Why didn't they reject that report so far,?" he asked, alleging that the ruling party had been using the 2G spectrum allegations for its political gains.
Chacko was made chairman of the 30-member JPC on the 2G spectrum issue in March 2011 by then Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
The controversial report of the JPC, which gave a clean chit to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker in October 2013.
The report, on which six parties had submitted dissent notes, had rubbished the notional loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore estimated by CAG, saying it was "ill-conceived."

Chacko also said CBI failed to prove the charge that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of licences for the 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the Supreme court on February 2, 2012.