Chennai, Nov. 23 (ANI): Founder-President of the Janata Party (JP) and a key petitioner in 2G scam case, Subramanian Swamy, on Wednesday contradicted Union Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid's claims that no proof is available against Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram's involvement in the scam.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deciding to boycottChidambaram in Parliament on the 2G issue, Khurshid had on Tuesday backed his cabinet colleague and said that there was no proof available against the former Finance Minister of the country.
He said the statement made by the Prime Minister along with the document released by him, held Chidambaram equally responsible in the scam as the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja.
"Prime Minister also said on February 24, 2011, in Rajya Sabha that I had no role to play in the determination of the price. This was a responsibility of the Finance Minister (P Chidambaram) and the Telecom Minister (Raja) and both came and told me that they have fixed the price at 2001. So, this is conclusive because Mr. Salman Khurshid has been saying that there is no letter from Chidambaram to Raja," Swamy told mediapersons here.
"I have produced one letter. If he wants another letter I'll be happy to produce that. I have already produced minutes to show that Chidambaram and Raja met. So therefore, Chidambaram and Raja together decided this letter is conclusive," he added.
Swamy further noted that the exposure proved Chidambaram's involvement in the scam and the decision of his boycott made by the opposition parties are justified.
"Parliament is saying that we are satisfied, I mean opposition parties are saying that we are satisfied based on the reports of the Public Account Committee (PAC) and other reports that Mr. Chidambaram is unfit to be the Home Minister of India. So, he must be made to resign and Parliament has an independent power. They don't have to wait for the court," he added.
Swamy, a key petitioner in the case, earlier in the day claimed that he has proof that Chidambaram and Raja acted together in fixing 2G spectrum prices.
"I am demolishing the idea that the price of spectrum was determined by A. Raja alone. I am showing that this document proves that it was decided jointly. And not only jointly, they (Raja and Chidambaram) met several times. Here it is two times but in the total they met four times," said Swamy.
"And therefore I think as far as this document is concerned, it completely demolishes the argument that Raja has acted alone. Raja and Chidambaram acted together to deprive the country of huge amount to revenue," he added.
Refusing to reveal the origin of this latest document, Swamy said that Chidambaram was the most crooked minister in the country, adding that he would urge the trial court in its next hearing on December 3, to make Chidambaram a co-accused in the case.
"December 3, the trial court is meeting to consider my arguments, whether Chidambaram should be made a co-accused with Raja. And I will be arguing that if Raja is accused, then Chidambaram is ten times more accused. He is more guilty; he is the most crooked minister in the country," he added.
Chidambaram has been at the centre of an extensive political storm ever since certain reports revealed of his alleged role in "deciding" the prices of 2G-spectrum during his earlier tenure as the Finance Minister, thus embroiling him in the telecom scam.
His name cropped up in a recent letter of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which Mukherjee blamed his predecessor for not sticking to the established procedures in auctioning of the 2-G spectrum.
The letter stated that sufficient steps were not taken by Chidambaram to prevent the colossal scam from occurring in the first place, considering he could have "stuck to the stand" of auctioning of the precious spectrum instead of giving it at throwaway prices.
The telecom scam, one of India's biggest graft cases ever, may have cost 39.57 billion dollars in revenue to the public exchequer as per the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
A. Raja was sacked in November last year and later arrested after being charged with giving away telecom licences in 2008 for a pittance, at meagre prices of 2001 in the CAG report. Raja is presently facing trial along with a group of telecom executives and DMK lawmaker Kanimozhi. (ANI)
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