New Delhi, Dec 9: Using Ratan Tata's statement, Congress today attacked the BJP saying it was shying from a debate on 2G spectrum issue as its top leadership was involved in taking "wrong" decisions when NDA was in power which led to a loss of Rs 60,000 crore to the government.
"Is it not a fact that in July 1999 immediately after the Kargil war the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took the Communication portfolio from Jagmohan and helped the Telecom companies which resulted in loss of Rs 60,000 crores to the country," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari alleged.
The attack came shorty after Tata Group supremo Ratan Tata issued a statement in which he said that there were a number of flip-flops in Telecom policy during the BJP regime. He also said that the losses due to the decision taken during the BJP's regime could be to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore.
Demanding that the BJP clarify its position on the spectrum allocation issue, Tewari said the saffron party should answer on the issue of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan distributing "free of cost spectrum to the Telecom operators on Jan 31, 2001.
"In 2004 when elections were on and model code of conduct was applicable, the then NDA government reduced the revenue share of the Telecom operators and caused loss to the exchequer," he told reporters outside Parliament.
Accusing the BJP of unnecessarily politicising the issue, Tewari said the top BJP leadership didn't want to hold a debate on the issue in the Parliament as "all of them have been involved in taking wrong decisions in Spectrum allocation."
Asked if the CBI raids against former Telecom Minister A Raja would affect Congress' alliance with the DMK in Tamil Nadu, he said, "We have an alliance with them. We have contested the Lok Sabha elections with them and even today we are running the government together in Tamil Nadu."
Echoing him, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanasamy claimed the demand for JPC probe into the 2G spectrum issue was a BJP-RSS agenda and other opposition parties had fallen for it.
"This (demand for JPC probe) is a BJP-RSS agenda and the opposition parties have fallen for it. This demand is only for political mileage," Narayanasamy told reporters outside Parliament. PTI
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