Controversial 2G note result of collective efforts: Gopalan tells JPC

NEW DELHI: The controversial March 25 note on 2G spectrum which suggested that then Finance Minister P Chidambaram could have insisted on auctioning the spectrum was a result of collective efforts by various departments aimed at harmonising the facts, a top government official told the JPC today.

Secretary, Economic Affairs, R Gopalan who appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee along with Finance Secretary R S Gujral today for the second time in seven months, is understood to have informed the committee that the note prepared last year was based on available facts and was prepared to harmonise the facts available with various ministries.

He said the internal note was necessary to ensure that all departments concerned had similar facts and it could work as a backgrounder on the 2G issue.

Sources said Gopalan admitted that he did share the proportional responsibility of the note being the senior-most official of the Finance Ministery involved in the process.

Gopalan was asked about the need for the note when the 2G spectrum allocation issue was already before the courts.

Sources said when Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) asked Gopalan whether the note blamed then Finance Minister P Chidambaram for not insisting on auctioning 2G spectrum, the official is learnt to have merely said that the document was a "statement of facts" and refused to say anything further.

Jaswant Singh ( BJP) referred to the noting on the communication that "this has been seen by the Finance Minister" and asked the official whether it meant that the note had the approval of Pranab Mukherjee.

Gopalan is learnt to have told the committee that he could not comment on the question.

Singh also referred to a recent Law Ministry opinion to the JPC that the word 'seen' "means something more than mere sight of the document."