Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday demanded the immediate resignation of Home Minister P. Chidambaram after the Supreme Court left the decision of a probe into his role in the 2G spectrum scam to the trial court.
Top BJP leaders spoke out in chorus against Chidambaram, who was finance minister when the 2G licences were allotted, and sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention.
“The finance minister is the custodian of the public exchequer. It is the prime responsibility of finance minister to ensure that there is no loot of public money,” Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley told reporters in Lucknow.
“It was not a person’s decision, it was the government’s decision. Telecom minister and finance minister had special role,” he said.
BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad added: “He has no moral right to continue… we have demanded his resignation earlier as well.”
“The BJP would like to ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh… would you now take some action against Mr. Chidambaram or would you continue to express your confidence in him in spite of so much evidence,” Prasad asked.
His colleague Balbir Punj echoed him and said: “If the government has any standards left, they should ask for the resignation of Chidambaram immediately.”
“Prime minister should ask for Chidambaram’s resignation immediately and, if he refuses, he should be sacked,” he said.
The main opposition party’s reaction come after the Supreme Court ordered cancelling of 122 licenses granted to telecom companies during the tenure of then communications minister A. Raja. The order cme on a plea of Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy.
Another petition by Swamy is with a trial court seeking an investigation into the role of Chidambaram, who was finance minister at the time of 2G spectrum allocation. The apex court has left the matter to the trial court, adding that the CBI is free to investigate if it chooses to do so.
“The CBI has elaborately argued for days together that the role of Mr. Chidambaram need not be investigated. Therefore, the upfront of today’s order is that his role has to be investigated. The special court has already taken up the matter,” Prasad said.
He also said the verdict had made the nation proud.
“We believe India’s reputation has grown after this verdict, the common Indian is full of pride today,” he said adding that several crucial policy decisions of UPA government lacked transparency and credibility.
“…Therefore the Supreme Court has been constrained to take these decisions which have been found to have severe and massive irregularities.”
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