New Delhi, Oct 11 (ANI): Firm on the demands to call Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram as witnesses, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha has written a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar informing her about his party's stand not to attend the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G spectrum allocation case.
Sinha, who was the Finance Minister of the country during the NDA regime, charged JPC chairman P.C. Chacko of being biased
"The Congress Party and the chairman of the JPC, who is a member of the Congress Party, are trying to use the JPC to cover up the truth. This is not acceptable to us and therefore in my letter to him today I have said clearly that until he decides the final list of witnesses and comes before the committee there is no point in our attending the meetings of the JPC," said Sinha.
"This is our final stand and I have sent a copy of this letter to the honourable Speaker asking her to intervene in the matter," he added.
Sinha informed that the members of the BJP were not allowed to raise the issue of finalising the list of witnesses during the last meeting of the JPC that was held on September 18.
"We were not allowed to raise that issue by the dictatorial attitude of the chairman of the committee P. C. Chacko and we were forced to walk out of the JPC. After 22 days he has again convened a meeting of the JPC and that an official witness is going to appear before the JPC. I have written a letter to him in which I have said that 22 days have passed since our last meeting, three months have passed since this issue of finalizing the list of witnesses came up. And he is still undecided, he does not want to take a decision on the list of witnesses," said Sinha.
"We have been repeatedly demanding that the UPA Ministers like Maran, Raja, Chidambaram and the Prime Minister himself should be asked to appear before the JPC because they have been party to decisions and only they can explain why they took the decisions that they took. No official can explain on their behalf," he added.
Sinha further said that the BJP doubted the intention of the JPC chairman for the latter is avoiding in taking a firm decision in the matter.
"We have also said that you are free to call all the ministers of the BJP regime, we will have absolutely no objection, call whosoever you like and examine him. But we have serious doubts about the intention of the chairman of the committee because he is avoiding taking a decision, he is also not coming to the committee with any such list," said Sinha.
"And in fact, he has gone public and told the media after the last meeting that he will go by majority decision and the majority decision is not to call the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister. So, we had demanded the JPC in order to uncover the truth," he added.
The BJP members had earlier walked out of the meetings of the JPC on August 22 and September 18, charging panel chief Chacko of being biased and accusing Congress members of using foul language.
The six BJP members in the JPC had asked Chacko to take a final decision on calling Dr Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram before the Committee.
Chacko has so far maintained that he would not take a decision on the issue using his discretionary powers and would leave it to the wisdom of committee members.
He had postponed the October 3 meeting of the JPC after Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar decided to talk to BJP members to end the stalemate. (ANI)
