Parliament set for 2G storm over NDA govt’s role

Stung by the CBI allegation that 2G spectrum allocation norms were violated during the NDA government’s tenure, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) appear all set raise the issue in the Parliament on Friday.

The party while stressing that it had no issues with any investigations into the matter wondered why the probe agency had not found any evidence against UPA leaders Dayanidhi Maran and P Chidambaram in the issue.

The CBI had yesterday informed the Supreme Court in the 2G case hearing that it has found violation of norms by Arun Shourie and Pramod Mahajan, who were Telecom Ministers in the NDA government, and maintained that the role of then Finance Minister Jaswant Singh also needs to be examined.

"As far as BJP is concerned we are very clear that any investigation can be done during NDA regime as far as telecom allocation is concerned. We have ourselves said in Parliament that the 2G case can be investigated from 1998 itselfs. We are proud of the expansion of mobile and telephone connectivity during our regime and we have nothing to hide," BJP Chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

However, he insisted that the role of UPA government, especially that of then Finance Minister P Chidambaram, former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and officials in the PMO should also be probed.