Ruckus in Lok Sabha as JPC report on 2G scam tabled

The report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee that looked into India's spectrum sale scam and cleared Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of wrongdoing in the 2G spectrum scam was tabled in Lok Sabha on Monday, the first day of the winter session of Parliament, amid predictable pandemonium.

The report says the prime minister was "misled" by the then telecom minister A Raja of the DMK party when spectrum was sold at allegedly rock-bottom prices to favoured companies.

It was tabled in the Lok Sabha by JPC chairman P C Chacko of the Congress after Speaker Meira Kumar disallowed any debate on the issue at the presentation stage during Zero Hour.

The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party and the leftist Communist Party of India united in alleging that the ''fraud'' and the ''fabricated'' JPC report was tabled in the Lok Sabha in violation of rules.

''This is a perverse report and fraudulent report and cannot be considered to be a JPC report,'' CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said outside Parliament, talking to reporters along with BJP leader Yashwant Sinha – strange bedfellows, coming from opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Both parties were also highly critical of Speaker Meira Kumar's ruling disallowing any debate on the issue at the presentation stage during Zero Hour.

Asked whether the CPI has joined hands with the BJP, Dasgupta said, ''We are all members of the JPC and no party is untouchable on the floor of Parliament.''

Sinha said the way the report was tabled in the house it was ''unprecedented'' and criticised the Speaker's conduct.

He said the Speaker ''did not allow us to raise points of order. MPs have rights to raise points of order under specific rules but she overruled it.''