2G scam: Jaitley wants PM to introspect over UPA government's failures

NEW DELHI: The BJP has said the status report filed by CBI in the Supreme Court established beyond doubt that ministers of the UPA have been indulging in gross abuse of power. “Dayanidhi Maran’s continuance in government became untenable after the report. Resignation was the only option available to him. Now it is for the prime minister to introspect why his government is perceived to be the most dishonest one,” leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said.

Jaitley recalled that the prime minister himself had talked about the perception of the government being the “most corrupt”. He said that it was time that he showed that he has the will to tackle the menace. “The Maran episode demonstrates that the prime minister did precious little. In the first place, Maran should not have been appointed the telecom minister when his family had interests in the sector.

He did not act even when it was clear that the minister attempted to arm twist an operator,” Jaitley said. An embarrassed Congress left the government to fend for itself. “If at all anything has to be said about the sequence of events...it is for the government to do so,” Congress spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters here in the Capital. Unlike the spirited defence the government had put up for A Raja when the Opposition had disrupted the Winter Session over CAG’s report on spectrum scandal, Congress was careful in reacting to Maran’s role in the takeover of Aircel by Maxis Communications in 2006. Congress also brushed aside suggestions that Maran’s resignation would strain Congress-DMK ties.