Apologise to Chidambaram, nation, Cong to BJP

[1]

Reaction to the Supreme Court dismissing a plea for a probe against union finance minister P. Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum case was on expected lines with the ruling party and its supporting outfits hailing it and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) still holding the US-educated lawyer 'constitutionally and politically accountable'.

The Congress demanded an apology from the BJP and the NDA over the issue.

Congress leader Rashid Alvi said, “It may be disturbing news for the BJP and NDA. I demand they should apologise not only to Chidambaram, but to the nation and the Congress also. Now the entire country will know their real face.”

Defending Chidambaram, Union law minister Salman Khurshid said, “I certainly can express great satisfaction on the judgment. I had great conviction from the beginning and the court has also accepted our arguments in the case.”

Minister of state in the PMO V. Narayanasamy said, “Chidambaram has nothing to do with 2G case. Swamy is always involved in filing these kind of petitions. So, there is no ground for his petition. We will face him legally and politically if he tries to malign the Congress Party.”

The Nationalist Congress Party too welcomed the verdict.

Party spokesperson D.P. Tripathy said, “This was a concerted attempt by the Opposition to whip up wrong propaganda against him (Chidambaram) and the Supreme Court has done the right thing. We welcome the judgment.”

The Samajwadi Party (SP) hailed the verdict as the right one.

SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said, “Whether Supreme Court or any other court, whatever decision is taken by judiciary, it always takes the right decision.”

But BSP supremo Mayawati refused to get drawn into the political battle arising out of the judgment saying, “No comments.”

But BSP MP Vijay Bahadur Singh, however, said, “Petitions of Subramanian Swamy and Prashant Bhushan were totally misconceived and not maintainable. It is a mischievous, motivated petition only to draw political mileage because they want to land in politics with the help of parachutes which the Supreme Court has rightly rejected.”

The main Opposition party, namely the BJP, still held the Union finance minister guilty. Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “The loss has been caused to the government. Mr Chidambaram was a part of the decision-making process. He is constitutionally accountable, remains politically accountable and that is what we are seeking inside Parliament and will continue to seek in the JPC.”

Speaking on similar lines, the CPI(M) too said they would seek a reply from the government in Parliament.

Senior leader Sitaram Yechury said, “Whatever the Supreme Court says, law will take its own course. But our duty is to seek an answer from the government on the issue in Parliament and we will do it because it is answerable to the House.”

‘No proof to show power abuse’

The Supreme Court on Friday provided relief to finance minister P. Chidambaram by dismissing the plea of Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy seeking that he be made an accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case and a CBI inquiry be initiated against him.

A bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and K.S. Radhakrishnan said there was no material to establish that Mr Chidambaram had abused his official position as the finance minister in 2008 or that he had conspired or colluded with the then communications minister A. Raja to obtain any pecuniary advantage for himself or any other persons.

The top court held that there was no prima facie material to suggest that Mr Chidambaram deliberately allowed dilution of equity of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd and Unitech Ltd, the two companies which have been chargesheeted in the case.

However, while absolving Mr Chidambaram of criminal culpability in spectrum allocation and pricing, the bench observed that 'poor management' and 'inaccurate decision' by itself cannot be said to be a product of criminal conspiracy.

The court passed the order on petitions filed by Mr Swamy and NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) challenging the February 4 judgment of the special CBI court giving a clean chit to Mr Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum scam. The judgment of special CBI judge O.P. Saini had held that Mr Chidambaram had not indulged in any criminal conspiracy or derived any pecuniary advantage in the decisions taken with Mr Raja, the then communications minister.

After going through the records, the top court on Friday said that Mr Chidambaram cannot be indicted for criminal conspiracy in the scam because of his meetings with Mr Raja, a key accused in the case, and DoT officials over the issue of price fixation for 2G spectrum.

“Criminal conspiracy cannot be inferred on the mere fact that there were official discussions between the officers of the MoF and that of DoT and between two ministers, which are all recorded,” the bench said.