Subversion of Constitution by Sonia Raj: Advani

The Winter Session of Parliament continues to be stalemated.  The responsibility for this stalemate is entirely of the UPA Government.

The UPA has diminished all institutions which were responsible for investigations to ensure probity in public life in India.

The autonomy and independence of the Central Bureau of Investigation has been seriously compromised.  Its investigation no longer inspire the confidence.  It has become a convenient instrument in the hands of the Government either to whitewash certain investigations or to harass political opponents.

The Central Vigilance Commission is the internal vigilance authority of the Government.  The appointment of its chief has completely demolished the credibility of the CVC as an institution.  A person charge-sheeted in a corruption case, who attempted to deny the CVC and CAG its authority to question the impropriety in the 2G spectrum allotment,  was appointed as its Head.  His appointment  was questioned first during the  meeting of the appointing collegium by the Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha), thereafter in the media and subsequently before the Supreme Court.

 The Government cannot seriously expect the Opposition to accept that the CBI  and the CVC  are the appropriate institutions which are capable of an honest investigation into the monumental 2G spectrum allotment scam.

The Prime Minister gave repeated clean chits to Shri A. Raja, the erstwhile Telecommunication Minister.  He turned a deaf ear to the national hue and cry.  The Parliament first debated this issue in the Rajya Sabha on 23.7.2009.  Obviously, the Opposition is no longer interested in merely talking out the issue.  It wants  action and therefore we had to resort to an extraordinary  step of a parliamentary stalemate when scam after scam were  being pushed under the carpet by the Government.  But for the parliamentary stalemate, Shri A. Raja would not have resigned; but for the fear of a hostile public opinion some action would not have been initiated into the various scams surrounding the organization of the Commonwealth Games.
 
The width and magnitude of the  matter involved in the 2G spectrum allotment case are far beyond the scope of the Public Accounts Committee.  The CAG is an internal auditor of the Government.  It raises various accounting and auditing issues.  The PAC confines itself to the parawise observations of the CAG.  It cannot go beyond the issues which were  before  the  CAG.

The 2G spectrum allotment scam involves wide ranging issues.  Why was it necessary that the Telecommunication portfolio was to be allotted only to the DMK?  Were corporate interests at play that even within the DMK it was to be allotted to only to a particular individual to the exclusion of others ?  Were the Telecommunication Minister  and his close associates in regular touch with Corporate lobbyists while formulating the policy for allotment of 2G spectrum ?

What is the truth with regard to the role of these lobbyists in relation to various institutions so vital to the working of the Indian democracy?  Was the allotment policy framed to favour a few at the cost of the National Exchequer? Why was spectrum allotted  in 2007-08 at 2001 prices ?  What is the magnitude of loss caused to the public exchequer ?  Is there evidence  available to suggest that there is an nexus between the allotting authority and the beneficiaries ?

A large number of these issues are not within the purview of the PAC.  Some may overlap with the PAC but there is nothing new or extraordinary  about the limited overlap between two different parliamentary committees.

When the investigative agencies have been compromised, the magnitude of the scam is unprecedented, a cover-up has taken place at the behest of the highest in the Government, institutions so vital for the effective functioning of the democracy are under cloud, Parliament cannot abdicate its responsibility and say it will not investigate into the matter.

Why is the Government running scared of a Joint Parliamentary Committee?  The Committee will be headed by a Government nominee.  Are we entitled to presume that transparency  which is vital for the effective functioning of a JPC scaring the Government because embarrassing truths stares it in the face.  The responsibility for the parliamentary stalemate rests entirely on the shoulders of the Government. Once the JPC is announced the NDA favours the resumption of parliamentary business forthwith. The more it delays the setting up of a JPC, the more is the Nation entitled to presume that the government is trying to evade the search and detection of truth which may be embarrassing to it.

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