Chidambaram’s place in same cell as Raja in Tihar,says BJP

The move to pin down Chidambaram on the strength of the Finance Ministry note suggested that the BJP’s attempt would next be to seek his questioning by the CBI.

Sinha,a member of the JPC probing the spectrum issue,contended that he had suspected Chidambaram’s involvement. “What is there in the note is not new for some of us. Chidambaram’s role has always been under the needle of suspicion,” he said,adding that the documents showed that Chidambaram had “completely abandoned” the initial stand taken by the Finance Ministry on the 2G spectrum issue.

Sinha also attempted to bring Prime Minister Manmohan Singh within the ambit of the BJP attack,alleging that the latter had been fully in the know of developments in 2G spectrum allocation as Raja had informed both Prime Minister as well as Chidambaram at every step. “If after all this,the Prime Minister kept silent then it would not be considered as silence but consent. If this touches Chidambaram,the Prime Minister knows he cannot be untouched,” Sinha said.

The BJP leader said the Prime Minister had earlier defended Raja but stopped doing so when he was sent to jail. “When Chidambaram is sent to jail,the Prime Minister will stop defending him too. Then he will only defend himself. And when his government goes in the wake of this scam,then it will become difficult for him to defend himself,” Sinha said.

The former finance minister,however,defended NDA government’s telecom policy,saying it had gone for a first-come-first serve policy at that time as there were only two players in the fray then and spectrum was not scarce then.

No evidence against PM as of now: Swamy

Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday said as of now no evidence has come on record to show that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had made substantial changes in any procedures in spectrum licences procedures. In a statement,Swamy also said there was an attempt to drag in the Prime Minister in the 2G row.