Panaji:
Senior BJP leader LK Advani today accused the Congress of trying to pass the buck to its ally, the DMK, for India's biggest swindle, the telecom scam.
"You can't try to make one of your alliance partner a scapegoat for all the corruption that has been going on in the government," Mr Advani said.
A Raja of the DMK is in jail for allegedly masterminding the scam when he was Telecom Minister. So is Kanimozhi, the daughter of DMK chief M Karunanidhi. Another senior DMK leader - Dayanidhi Maran- was the country's Telecom Minister before Mr Raja. He is also being investigated by the CBI for misusing his term in the telecom department to accept a massive kickback from a company he helped illicitly. The Supreme Court is monitoring the CBI's inquiry against Mr Raja and the telecom executives who he allegedly conspired with - they got licenses for mobile networks and second-generation or 2G spectrum at throwaway prices.
The Opposition has repeatedly argued that the Prime Minister must explain why scams were allowed to play out in his Cabinet, and that he cannot absolve himself of blame. "The country has to know how much is the responsibility of the Prime Minister's Office and how is then Finance Minister (P Chidambaram) responsible," Mr Advani said.
The Congress did not respond well to that suggestion. "Mr. Advani wants a parallel trial. Whatever is happening in the court, he wants that to happen also outside. Just a basic thing that I would want Mr. Advani to know - that there is principal of sub-judice that you don't discuss what is happening in court, because if you discuss, there is a danger that you will influence what the court will do," said Law Minister Salman Khurshid.
A group of petitioners including Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy have asked the Supreme Court to order the CBI to investigate Mr Chidambaram, who was Finance Minister in 2008 when the 2G scam unfolded in Mr Raja's domain. Mr Chidambaram is now Home Minister. A note sent by the Finance Ministry in March this year to the Prime Minister's Office underlined that Mr Chidambaram could have enforced an auction of spectrum in 2008 - a process Mr Raja skipped. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that he does not agree with all the inferences of that note, and that the document was prepared in consultation with the Prime Minister's Office and the cabinet secretariat, which handles policy and administrative coordination between different ministries.