NEW DELHI, DEC 22
Taking the fight against corruption to the streets, BJP-led NDA on Wednesday targetted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the scams in UPA government demanding that he form a JPC and depose before it or quit.
At a rally here, the first of a series of cross-country protests by NDA in the run up to the budget session of Parliament, senior BJP leader L K Advani, described 2010 as a “year of stinking scams” and appealed to the Prime Minister even at this stage to redeem himself by setting up a JPC to go into the 2G spectrum scam.
All the speakers, including leaders from JD(U), Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal, made Manmohan Singh the focus of their attack, saying since he is ready to appear before the Public Accounts Committee he should have no objection to deposing before a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
“You (the Prime Minister) should form the JPC, answer our questions and if you (PM) cannot answer our questions, then step down from your post on moral grounds,” Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said in his address at the rally that was thinly-attended.
Challenging the Prime Minister to depose before a JPC, NDA working President Advani said “In India’s history, the Supreme Court has perhaps never before asked a Prime Minister to file an affidavit in a case.”
He maintained that the present NDA campaign against corruption was “in a way a campaign against the Prime Minister”.
Advani, who had called Singh a “weak Prime Minister” during the 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign, said the Prime Minister’s post is not weak and Singh should assert himself instead of always waiting for directions from “10, Janpath” (Sonia Gandhi’s residence).
“You have a right to accept this demand for a JPC… And you should come before the JPC and say whatever you have to say,” Advani told the PM in his speech.
Jaitley said never before a Prime Minister had to say that he has nothing to hide. He wondered why the Prime Minister says he would not form a JPC but can depose before the PAC.
The NDA attack on the Prime Minister comes against the backdrop of his offer at the Congress Plenary session that he would be “happy” to depose before the PAC and termed the demand for a JPC as “political blackmail”. Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi had stood firmly behind Singh and praised him.
Jaitley insisted that the PM was responsible for the controversial appointment of P J Thomas as the CVC and asked why Singh was silent for three years on 2-G spectrum issue.
Jaitley’s counterpart in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj announced that the call for an agitation against corruption would continue till the budget session of Parliament.
“Government is not giving in to the demand for a JPC as it fears this will keep the issue alive,” she said.
Holding that the Prime Minister cannot shake off his responsibility on the issue of corruption, she said “if corruption is happening right under your nose and you are not doing anything, then you are an accomplice”.
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BJP President Nitin Gadkari attacked the government for alleged corruption in Commonwealth Games projects and asked the government to explain how each time the budget was increased, the sanctions were given by the Finance Minister, Group of Ministers and the Cabinet.
“The Congress ministers have been involved in corruption and these decisions were taken by the Congress. It is a Congress scam. And then you (Sonia Gandhi) say you will take strict action against the corrupt,” Gadkari said.
He asked the Congress to first set its house in order, throw out the corrupt and then talk about corruption.
Advani announced that NDA rallies against corruption would be held in Guwahati (January 9, 2011), Mumbai (January 16), Bhubaneshwar (January 17), Jaipur (January 19), Chennai (January 21), Kanpur (February 5) and Rohtak (February 6). Dates for rallies in Hyderabad, Bhopal, Ahmedabad and Ludhiana had not yet been decided.
JD(U) President and NDA Convenor Sharad Yadav asked the people to “demolish and destroy” all those who have indulged in corruption.
“The demand for JPC is not an unconstitutional demand. JPC means a mini-Parliament….Why are you (the government) not ready to form it?” Yadav said.
SAD MP Rattan Singh Ajnala alleged even the Mughals and the English had not looted the country to the extent that the Congress had done.
He charged Manmohan Singh has “become a puppet” in the hands of the Congress President.
Shiv Sena MP Anant Geete alleged Hindu organisations and NDA allies were being called terrorists by the government.
“The government wants to incite the Hindu organisations and wants riots across the country,” he charged.
