New Delhi:
The Prime Minister has announced that his government will set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to study the 2G spectrum scam.
In the Lok Sabha today, on the first working day of the Budget session, he said, "On account of the controversy relating to allocation of 2G spectrum, the winter session of Parliament was lost. Our country can ill-afford this...in paralyzing Parliament, we all do disservice to those who have elected us."
Adding that his government had failed to convince the Opposition that a JPC was not needed, Dr Manmohan Singh said, "It is in these special circumstances that our government agrees to a JPC...we are a functioning democracy and must try to resolve our difference is the spirit of collaboration not competition."
The formation of the JPC is not an unexpected concession from the government. Since the winter session of parliament ended with only ten working hours on record, the government has been negotiating with the Opposition to ensure that the Budget session was not similarly choked. At a series of meetings with different political parties, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried to navigate a compromise. Finally, late last week, it became clear that the Opposition would have its way.
In Parliament today, the PM requested Speaker Meira Kumar to proceed with the process of formation of the JPC and said a formal motion would be moved soon.
Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj thanked the PM. "It is not a question of who has won or lost...it is a victory of democracy. We should all work together putting aside any talk of victory or defeat," she said.
The 2G scam dates back to 2008, when A Raja was Telecom Minister and allegedly handed out mobile network licenses at inexplicably low prices to companies that he has now been accused of favouring. In November 2010, the 2G scam turned into a political tsunami - a combination of the Supreme Court's insistence that some action be taken against those involved, and a comprehensive report by the government's auditor that said the scam, as executed by Mr. Raja, had cost the country up to 1.76 lakh crores. Different opposition parties came together to demand that the breadth of the scam necessitated a Joint Parliamentary Committee to study it in detail.
The government resolutely resisted the pressure. It said that multiple agencies were investigating the 2G scam already. Among them were the CBI and the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC). But the Opposition wasn't impressed. It said that the Public Accounts Committee had to limit its inquiry to what was reported by the government's auditor. What was really needed, said the BJP, when the scale of the corruption was so grotesque, was a complete investigation into governance and accountability.
When Mr Raja was arrested on February 2, the government hoped that the Opposition would be convinced that after years of glacially slow investigation, the CBI was finally delivering. The BJP said instead that it was more convinced than ever that a JPC was needed. After all, the party's leaders argued, if a senior minister had been allowed to swindle the country, there were larger issues that needed to be explored - in particular, the BJP has said, it will target the Prime Minister for not intervening when Mr Raja's plans were unfolding with blatant disregard for the government's guidelines on spectrum allocation.