BJP says Raja arrest too little too late, Cong defends PM
Strongly defending Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the backdrop of the arrest of former telecom minister A. Raja in the alleged 2G spectrum allocation scam, the Congress on Wednesday said collective responsibility of the government in case of criminal culpability does not arise as it is always against an individual.
Dismissing the suggestion that the Prime Minister owes an explanation as the head of the Union Cabinet of which Mr raja was a member, AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “Apart from you, there is no one in the world who will say that the credibility of the Prime Minister or the government is affected. It has allowed the law to take its own course, independently and objectively.”
Mr Snghvi also dubbed as “absurd” the suggestions that the entire government needed to be blamed for the scam on the principle of collective responsibility. “Collective responsibility in the Constitutional sense has nothing to do with criminal culpability,” he added.
Replying to another question, the AICC spokesperson said the development would not have any bearing on the Cong-DMK alliance in poll-bound Tamil Nadu. “It is absolutely no reflection on the alliance. It is continuation of a legal process,” he added.
A senior Congress leader, who declined to be identified, sought to project the arrest of Raja as also the FIR against former Maharashtra chief minister in the Adarsh Housing scam as steps that would raise the credibility of the party. “Which other party or government has taken such action against its own minister and chief minister,” he asked. His contention was that the arrest of Mr Raja and the action in the Adarsh case would help end the deadlock in Parliament.
Meanwhile, the main opposition BJP claimed that with Mr Raja’s arrest, their demand for a JPC probe into the corruption cases has been strengthened.
The party asked why the Prime Minister had been silent on the issue for so long.
Terming Raja’s arrest as “belated”, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, “I wish the Prime Minister, instead of living in denial, had acted three years ago so that this huge, monumental loss to the public exchequer had not taken place.”
Dubbing the arrest as “too little, too late”, the party demanded that others involved in the alleged 2G spectrum allocation scam should also be brought to book.
Mr Jaitley also said that Mr Raja’s arrest also proved that new telecom minister Kapil Sibal was incorrect when he had recently said that there were no losses caused in the process of 2G allocations.
Moreover, the Left was quick to slam the government on the alleged delay in Mr Raja’s arrest by the CBI and insisted on a JPC probe into the alleged 2G spectrum allocation scam.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said that if the new communication minister, Mr Kapil Sibal, was right when he said there was no problem in the allocation of 2G spectrum, then why did the CBI arrest his predecessor.
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