Insisting that it was imperative to call Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram for a fair investigation into the multi-crore 2G scam, BJP members on Wednesday walked out of the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) and threatened to quit from the committee.
Though the differences over calling the Prime Minister and Finance Minister to the JPC meeting has been going on for the last few weeks, it has reached a flash point on Wednesday following the heated arguments between the ruling party members and the Opposition. When the committee met to finalise the list of witnesses out of 107 names, BJP member Jaswant Singh insisted that the Prime Minister and Finance Minister should be included in the list, which was strongly opposed by Congress members.
Manish Tewari said that such senior ministers should not be subjected to insult just for political gains of the BJP. Another Congress member Deepender Hooda also criticised the BJP for converting the JPC into a ‘Kangaroo court’. Following the angry protests, BJP members have walked out of the meeting.
Five BJP members of the JPC, who walked of the meeting, alleged that the Congress members had used foul language and termed the committee a ‘kangaroo court’. BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said, “The moment we raised the demand to call PM and Finance Minister, junior members of the Congress used foul language and targeted us. We were left with no choice, but to walk out.”
Besides Yashwant, BJP members Jaswant Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Gopinath Munde and Dharmendra Pradhan walked out of the JPC meeting.