New Delhi:
A meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), which is examining the 2G scam, today saw heated exchanges as BJP members demanded summoning of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and top PMO officials. The Congress countered it with their own list of witnesses that included all NDA Telecom Ministers.
Amid sharp differences, the internal meeting of the JPC remained inconclusive.
While the Opposition members demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Finance Minister P Chidamabaram, who is currently the Home Minister, and former Telecom Minister A Raja should be summouned. BJP leader Jaswant Singh has offered to depose before the committee. Congress members say the panel is being misused by the Opposition to settle political scores.
The committee's Chairman PC Chacko is likely to table an "exhaustive" list of witnesses in the next meeting for members to decide.
Sources said the trouble started as soon as Mr Chacko told the members that the committee, which has already got two extensions, should now start working on writing its report so that the draft could be discussed September onwards.
While BJP members agreed, they demanded that their list of witnesses including Mr A Raja, who is the main accused in the 2G scam, Mr Chidambaram, Prime Minister's Advisor TKA Nair and the PM's Principal Secretary Pulok Chatterjee, the sources said.
At this, the Congress' JP Agarwal accused BJP of trying to prolong the proceedings of the panel for electoral gains.
He is understood to have said that BJP wanted to extend the December, 2012 deadline of JPC to ensure that it is able to turn 2G scam into an electoral issue.
Amid heated exchanges, an agitated Yashwant Sinha (BJP) pressed for summoning more witnesses before finalising the draft report. He demanded summoning of the Prime Minister and top PMO officials, the sources said.
The BJP members also wanted summoning of former Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar, RBI governor D Subbarao and Attorney General G E Vahanvati.
To counter this, Congress members, including Manish Tewari, wanted Telecom Ministers of NDA government like Sushma Swaraj, Jagmohan and Arun Shourie to be summoned.