New Delhi:
Finance Minister P Chidambaram does not need to testify on the telecom scam before a parliamentary committee, the panel's head, PC Chacko, reportedly told the group today, widening the chasm between the Congress and the opposition BJP, which has threatened to quit the panel in protest. Yashwant Sinha, a BJP leader on the committee, accused Mr Chacko of acting "in a totally dictatorial manner" and said that instead of behaving like an impartial chairman, "he only behaved like a spokesperson of the Congress party."
Mr Chacko, who is from the Congress, has reportedly decided that Mr Chidambaram's appearance is not needed because of the statements made today by D Subbarao, who was Finance Secretary in 2008 when the telecom scam played out. Before Mr Subbarao arrived, the BJP's representatives on the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) had walked out of the meeting in protest against Mr Chacko's refusal to commit to a summons for the Prime Minister and Mr Chidambaram.
Mr Chacko described the BJP's decision as "extremely immature" and said "with folded hands, I urged them not to go."
Mr Subbarao, who is now the RBI governor, reportedly told the committee that reports that he had differences with Mr Chidambaram during the allocation of telecom licenses were inaccurate. A large part of the telecom scam was allegedly facilitated because spectrum was not auctioned - instead, airwaves were given at no cost along with licenses that cost companies about 1600 crores each. Mr Subbarao allegedly testified that the absence of an auction for airwaves did not cause a loss to the exchequer. He allegedly said that any losses were notional and not monetary. "Much depends on perception," he is learnt to have told the parliamentary committee.
Mr Subbarao also said that he disagrees with a controversial note prepared by the Finance Ministry last year, when it was headed by Pranab Mukherjee that suggested that Mr Chidambaram could have insisted on an auction of spectrum.
The BJP says that the PM and Mr Chidambaram must explain why they were unable to intervene in 2008 when former Telecom Minister A Raja engineered and executed the second-generation or 2G scam. Refusing to auction spectrum, Mr Raja followed a first-come-first-serve policy to award licenses for mobile operators. He then allegedly tweaked the process to help some companies jump to the head of the long queue.