Opposition spurns Govt’s fresh bid to end Parl deadlock on 2G

Urging them to allow Parliament to function,Mukherjee offered a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the 2G case while expressing government’s readiness for a full-fledged debate in Parliament on all aspects of teh spectrum controversy. He,however,said the JPC demand was unacceptable.

The BJP leaders made it clear that they were firm on their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe and would not relent on it.

Mukherjee also spoke to CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury over telephone but the Left party put the onus to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament on the government.

“We have been insisting that the spectrum issue merits an enquiry by a JPC. We continue with our demand,” Yechury said.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said in Ahmedabad,”Congress is running away from the JPC and we have decided to stick to our demand. It has been three weeks now that Parliament is not functioning.”

In Delhi,Deputy Leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha S S Ahluwalia said,”Government is primarily and constitutionally accountable only to Parliament. The best and only option in this case is a JPC probe.”

Sources said Mukherjee told Advani and Swaraj that government could not agree to a JPC probe as the earlier experiences have not been good.

He recounted the Bofors and Harshad Mehta stock scams in which JPC probes were held noting that the opposition turned them into election issues to garner votes.

Mukherjee suggested that instead of a JPC probe,a full-fledged debate on 2-G Spectrum allocation scam can be held in Parliament. This was rejected by the BJP leaders who said discussions have already been held in earlier sessions of Parliament on the scam.

The senior Congress leader also suggested that the Supreme Court can take over the supervision of the CBI probe into the 2-G scam. But this prompted the two leaders to ask as to how the government could ensure this.