New Delhi:
Home Minister P Chidambaram is facing the heat from the Opposition and Left parties after a note from the Finance Ministry to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) suggested that Mr Chidambaram could have been more proactive as Finance Minister in 2007, when India's greatest scam was unleashed in 2008 by A Raja, who was then Telecom Minister.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, addressing a press conference this evening, demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Mr Chidambaram's role in the 2G scam and said that the government, which is defending Mr Chidambaram, is in denial.
"It seems this government is at war with its own self...The government is living in denial," he said. (
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BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi has said that it is clear from the note that Mr Chidambaram played a role in the 2G scam and called for his dismissal.
"Mr Chidambaram should be either dismissed...or he should resign...The CBI should take up a case against him," he said. (
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Mr Joshi also said that the Prime Minister has also been misled and that "This is most disgraceful that a country's finance minister pulls the country into such a huge scam."
Not just the BJP, the AIADMK also shares similar views. Party chief J Jayalalithaa, who is also the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu said Mr Chidambaram should either resign or be dropped from the cabinet by the Prime Minister.
"It is quite clear that Mr Chidambaram is deeply involved in the 2G spectrum scam, which according to the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report has caused a loss of over Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the Indian exchequer. Mr Chidambaram should immediately resign from his post or else the PM should immediately drop him from the cabinet. The CBI should proceed against Chidambaram, as they did against A Raja," said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa. (
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The CPI-M has also demanded a CBI probe into the alleged role of Mr Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum case. It said in a statement that the note submitted by the finance ministry to the PMO in March 2011 "has shown authoritatively that Chidambaram had cleared the allotment of licenses for 2G spectrum at the 2001 entry fee even though the finance secretary and his own ministry had pointed out the need for revision of the fee".
"The note makes the pertinent observation that if the finance ministry had stuck to its earlier stand, the licenses given could have been cancelled."
The CPI-M added that evidence had come to light that then and now jailed Telecom Minister A Raja and Chidambaram met in January 2008 when, according to the finance secretary, "the Finance Minister had stated that they are not going to re-visit the issue of entry fee or revenue sharing".
"The CPI-M, in the light of all this mounting evidence, demands a CBI investigation into the role of Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum case," the statement said.
The note that has authored the controversy, was sent in March this year to the Prime Minister's Office. It was presented yesterday in the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the investigations into the telecom 2G scam. The 14-page document states that it was "seen by" Mr Mukherjee, establishing that the Finance Minister endorsed its findings. They include stressing that Mr Chidambaram could have tried much harder to force Mr Raja to auction valuable spectrum, instead of bundling it with licenses that were under-valued for companies who Mr Raja favoured.
(
With IANS inputs)