JPC report on 2G scam adopted; gives clean chit to PM & Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the 2G spectrum scam was on Friday adopted by a 16-11 vote in favour of government side. The vote tally came in at 16-11 after an NCP member also gave his support, said JPC Chairman Chacko.

The report gives a clean chit to both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G scam.

Reacting to the same, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "They rejected our demand to call A Raja before the committee."

All eyes were on members of JD(U), BSP and SP which had not made their stand clear on supporting the document which gave a clean chit to the Prime Minister but indicted former Telecom Minister A Raja.

The government breathed easy with NCP scaling down its demand for calling Raja as a witness. The UPA all said it does not wish to make calling Raja as a witness an issue.

"It is the opinion of the party. We have registered our opinion to the JPC. But we do not wish to make it into an issue. We have told the committee our stand," the sole NCP member in the panel Y P Trivedi had told PTI.

By demanding that Raja be called as a witness, it had joined opposition parties, including BJP, the Left, DMK and JD (U) over the issue.

The opposition had recently slammed the government for nominating Rajya Sabha member Ashok S Ganguly alleging he would support UPA in the panel and tilt the balance.

The opposition camp had BJP (6), BJD (1), TMC (1), CPI (1), CPI-M (1), DMK (1) and AIADMK (1). The JPC has 20 members from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha.

The panel has not been able to meet for a host of reasons since April when the draft report was circulated to the members.

The term of the JPC was recently extended till the end of the winter session of Parliament. This was the sixth extension to the JPC set up in March, 2011.