Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar has demanded that the telecom minister Kapil Sibal retract his statement that there was zero loss to the exchequer due to the 2G spectrum scam committed by his predecessor A Raja. In a letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chandrasekhar has said not only does the statement amount to contempt of the court but also interferes with the ongoing CBI investigations and undermines the office of the comptroller and auditor general of India (CAG).
?The Supreme Court has given a specific direction to the CBI to conduct thorough investigation into various issues highlighted in the report of the CVC and the report of CAG who have prima facie found serious irregularities ?..and the huge losses to the public exchequer running into several thousand crores. However, by saying that there was no loss to the exchequer Sibal has thwarted the ongoing CBI investigation and has unduly influenced the SC monitored investigation by CBI,? Chandrasekhar has said.
He added that Sibal?s statement has made it impossible for the government to recover any portion of the loss incurred. Also Sibal’s statement of zero loss would now become a line of defence used by the beneficiaries in the scams in all forums including the courts, thus thwarting any efforts by the government to recover the losses. As a result there were no gains to private companies so it would become virtually impossible to prosecute the beneficiaries of the scam.
He has also said Sibal, as a union minister, whose department is required to respond to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has bordered on breaching Parliamentary privilege and put his position out in public, before his department has fully responded to the queries of PAC?a process that has only just begun. It would have been up to the PAC to conclude, based on his department?s responses, on whether or not the CAG report is accurate. While he has every right to defend the department (even if for political reasons), the defence should have been aimed at PAC under the protocol that needs to be followed in the Parliament, rather than jumping to an external press release?that too, without any provocation.