Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the 2G spectrum issue P.C. Chacko has sent a letter to DMK MP and former Communications Minister A. Raja seeking his reply to four questions.
This was in response to Mr. Raja’s letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on February 22, with a copy marked to Mr. Chacko, seeking an opportunity to appear before the JPC and explain his version.
While Mr. Raja confirmed to The Hindu the receipt of the letter, with the questionnaire, DMK parliamentary party leader and JPC member T.R. Baalu took strong exception to the Chairman’s decision. “How can he write such a letter without consulting other members of the JPC? I don’t think what Mr. Chacko has done is correct,” Mr. Baalu said. He added that the party would raise its objections to this decision at the next meeting of the JPC.
Reliable sources indicated that Mr. Raja, elected from the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, in reply to Mr. Chacko’s letter, is likely to send another letter insisting on an opportunity to appear before the 20-member committee.
Mr. Raja earlier justified the decision to write a request letter to the Speaker as he was a sitting member of the Lok Sabha. In his letter to Ms. Kumar, he had said he was “willing and indeed anxious” to tell the JPC and through it, the nation, “the truth of the matter” which, he believes, was being “suppressed on [the] basis of pre-conceived notions, deliberate bias, faulty investigation and erroneous conclusions aided by a media intent on sensationalism.”
JPC members belonging to the DMK, the CPI and the CPI (M), and other parties too have openly supported Mr. Raja’s request for an opportunity to explain his version.
CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta, who too is a JPC member, said Mr. Raja should be called as he had a different version on the 2G issue, evidence given by others and the role of individuals. He should be examined to go further into the “root of truth.”
