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BJP leaders want PM summoned

Sharp differences cropped up between the Congress and the primary opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP], during the Joint Parliamentary Committee [JPC] held on Tuesday.

The JPC aimed at examining 2G scam witnessed exchange of heated arguments after BJP members demanded summoning of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as top PMO officials, which was countered by Congress members, who had their own list of witnesses that included all NDA telecom ministers.

In fact, JPC Chairman PC Chacko will most likely table an ‘exhaustive’ list of witnesses when the next meet comes up, leaving it for members to decide, sources said. Trouble started when Chacko told the members the JPC, which has already got two extensions, that it should now start working on writing its report so that the draft could be discussed September onwards, sources said. Sources added the BJP agreed to this but they also demanded that their list of witnesses should include former Telecom Minister A Raja, who is the main accused in the 2G scam, union home minister P Chidambaram and the Prime Minister’s Advisor T K A Nair.

Sources have told Millennium Post that BJP MPs Yashwant Sinha, Harin Pathak and Ravi Shankar Prasad demanded that PM’s Principal Secretary Pulok Chatterjee should be summoned before the  Congress’ JP Agarwal intervened and said that all NDA ministers should be called in first and also accused the BJP of trying to prolong the proceedings of the panel for electoral gains. Sharad Yadav intervened at this point and said that Chairman Chacko must finalise the list of witnesses.

The BJP MPs also said that even Arun Shourie wants to depose before JPC and they can call any telecom minister from the NDA regime. The BJP members also stressed that all former and present Telecom secretaries should be called for this meet. These leaders also wanted summoning of former Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar, RBI governor D Subbarao and Attorney General G E Vahanvati.

Official spokesperson of Congress Manish Tewari asked former Telecom Ministers of NDA government like Sushma Swaraj, Jagmohan and Arun Shourie to be summoned.
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