- MUMBAI: Lashing out at the Congress, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Prasad asked that when million-dollar scams like the 2G spectrum scam in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is being exposed, why is the Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi silent on the matter.
Speaking to the media on Sunday evening, Prasad said that when 2G spectrum scam took place, Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan was the minister in the Prime Minister’s Office holding independent charge. He alleged that the Chavan too was involved in the scam.
Prasad further stated that the Congress led UPA federal government has created a record by being involved in number of scams and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lacks the capability and power to put a halt to it, though Singh was fully aware of the scams.
The BJP leader alleged that Singh and detained former federal minister for communications A. Raja had exchanged letters on three occasions relating to the 2G spectrum and it is transparently clear that Raja had provided misleading information to the prime minister. From this it is also clear that Raja was ignoring the orders of the prime minister, Prasad said, asking as to why Singh kept quiet when the decisions in the spectrum issue was changed in the Council of Ministers meeting.
Outlining the BJP’s strategy during the forthcoming budget session in both the houses of the Parliament this month, Prasad said: “The federal government would have to take a decision on setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the spectrum scam prior to the commencement of the budget session. The Bofors gun scam and the fodder scam by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former federal railway minister were of lesser kind. But the scams during the 10-year rule of the UPA government were of a much bigger proportion than the Bofors and fodder scam. The government should also take stern and bold steps to bring back the black money stashed in foreign banks,” Prasad added.
Asked about the proposal of senior BJP leader and deputy leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde to forge an alliance with Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Prasad evaded the question in order not to provoke reaction from the Sena chief Bal Thackeray and instead said that the BJP’s alliance with the Sena remains strong and cordial.
