Left demands P Chidambaram should be called before JPC on 2G spectrum issue

NEW DELHI: CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta today stormed out of the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G accusing Congress member Shashi Tharoor of defending a witness which was "against the procedures" of the panel.

"I walked out as defending a witness when the witness is deposing before a Committee is against the procedures. Tharoor has created a bad precedence," Dasgupta told reporters here.

He claimed that when the then Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs Sindhushree Khullar was defending giving the 'non-paper' to the Department of Telecommunications saying that the approval of Director (Infrastructure) was there, Tharoor tried to shield her.

Dasgupta said he then staged a walk out. The CPI leader said he has also demanded that Finance Minister P Chidambaram should be called before the JPC as a witness.

In a letter to JPC Chairman P C Chacko, Dasgupta said the Finance Minister will be able to explain his Ministry's "inability to prevent DoT from unilaterally going ahead with the allocation of 2G licences in spite of opposition from various quarters."

He also said as Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh had deposed before the JPC on securities scam.

This may effectively nail down suspicion and can bring out that there is no impartiality on part of the JPC to conduct a neutral inquiry, Dasgupta wrote in the letter.

His letter comes after a similar demand was made by CPM leader Sitaram Yechury in the September 18 meeting of the JPC.

BJP has staged walk out over the issue of calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram before the panel.