Congress rejects Swamy's allegation against PC

New Delhi: Congress today rejected the opposition demand for the resignation of Home Minister P Chidambaram on 2G spectrum allocation issue, saying “we do not, in any manner, accept” the allegation made by Subramanian Swamy against him. “The party does not doubt his integrity. This precise issue has been raised by Dr Swamy in the apex court and is sub judice,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said. [caption id=“attachment_89402” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Singhvi said the “mischievous attempt” to create a rift between different constitutional functionaries is highly regrettable. Reuters”]  [/caption] “Without waiting for the proceedings to be completed, it is highly objectionable and inappropriate for Dr Swamy or anyone else to pass premature judgement on the very same issue on which he is seeking relief”, Singhvi said. He said the “mischievous attempt” to create a rift between different constitutional functionaries is highly regrettable and ought not to be repeated. His reaction came after Swamy submitted to the Supreme Court a Finance Ministry document which said the Telecom Ministry could have gone in for auction of 2G spectrum licenses had the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram insisted on it. Singhvi said the “mischievous attempt” to create a rift between different constitutional functionaries is highly regrettable and ought not to be repeated. His reaction came after Swamy submitted to the Supreme Court a Finance Ministry document which said the Telecom Ministry could have gone in for auction of 2G spectrum licenses had the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram insisted on this. The 25 March, 2011 office memorandum by the Finance Ministry headed by Pranab Mukherjee sent to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) also suggested that Chidambaram and the jailed former Telecom Minister A Raja had jointly determined the price for the 2G spectrum in 2008. Swamy presented the documents before the apex court bench of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice AK Ganguly which is hearing his application seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Chidambaram’s alleged role in deciding the price of 2G spectrum allocation. This sparked demands by opposition parties, including BJP, for immediate resignation of Chidambaram as Home Minister. Another Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary accused BJP of “jumping to conclusion” on the 2G issue with its demand for Chidambaram’s resignation. “BJP should stop being excited about everything. BJP is jumping to conclusions. Let us wait for a while if there is any such report. I have not seen the report,” she said. She was asked to comment on BJP’s charge that Mukherjee’s letter to the Prime Minister in 2-G spectrum case shows the “complicity” of Chidambaram and demanded his resignation, alleging that not only UPA allies but also the Congress were involved in it. Coming to the defence of P Chidambaram, Law Minister Salman Khurshid today said it is unfair to drag the Union Home Minister’s name into an “element of criminality”. “He is involved in policy decision and he could be right, he could be wrong. He could feel that he would take a different view, he could feel that he could still continue to take the same view, even if its an unpopular view. [caption id=“attachment_89403” align=“alignright” width=“380” caption=“Khurshid said some policies have to be reversed if they don’t work. AFP”]  [/caption] “But you can’t automatically therefore drag his name into an element of criminality and make a circus of it, I think that’s unfair. I think if we start doing that, then nobody is safe,” he told a news channel. “I talked to you, I said all this, tomorrow somebody takes me to court, where they say, you said very clearly that you are on the side of the wrongdoer and therefore you should also have to come and answer. Now, that’s not what law is about, that’s not what democracy is about and that’s certainly not what public policy is about,” Khurshid said. He said some policies have to be reversed if they don’t work. “Now, every time you reverse a policy that hasn’t worked, you can’t say that the person who brought that policy in was incompetent, or that he was dishonest, or that he undeservingly got the job in which he made that policy. I think that’s an extremely unfair and dangerous point of view.”