Firing a fresh salvo at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP leader L K Advani today demanded answers from him on PMO's role in the controversial 2G note issue.
"The country has to know how much was PMO's responsibility and how is the finance minister responsible," Advani told reporters in Panaji.
The note had sought to suggest that P Chidambaram, as the Finance Minister in 2008, could have prevented the 2G scam by insisting on auctioning the spectrum.
Advani claimed it was "evident" that Chidambaram had a role to play by not insisting on auction of the spectrum and that the Prime Minister should have ordered an inquiry against the minister instead of expressing confidence in him.
Questioning Advani's demand, Law Minister Salman Khurshid said as the case was already before the courts, a "parallel trial" cannot take place outside.
"A parallel trial cannot go on outside the courts... There is a basic thing that I want Mr Advani to know, that there is a principle of sub judice that you cannot discuss what's happening in the court," he told reporters in Delhi.
Advani, who is in Goa as part of his anti-graft yatra, said, "If the PMO understood rightly that Chidambaram did not take preventive and remedial measures in time in order to prevent loss of public revenue in 2G allocation, then it was incumbent upon the Prime Minister to permit investigation into his role instead of expressing confidence in Chidambaram that he is innocent."
He said fresh facts have come out through Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's September 26 letter to the Prime Minister contending that "The Finance Ministry note on 2G spectrum was in fact prepared in consultation with the Cabinet Secretariat and on the insistence of the Prime Minister’s Office."
"The country would like to know the full facts about this 2G scam and how much is the PMO’s responsibility and how much is the then finance minister’s responsibility," Advani said.
He said that with every passing day, new revelations were coming out making the 2G scam "curiouser and curiouser" and demanded that all facts may be brought to light.
The BJP leader also accused the Congress of making its ally DMK a "scapegoat" in the 2G case.
"You can't try to make one of your alliance partners a scapegoat for all the corruption that has been going on in the government," he said.
The Congress as a party is no less responsible than any of the alliance partners for the corruption, he said.
The BJP leader sought to know what has been the PMO's role in the case, what has been the Cabinet Secretariat’s role in this and what was the full truth about the kind of "civil war" going on between the two senior-most ministers in this government.
Countering him, Khurshid said if things which are before the court are discussed outside, "there is a danger that you will influence what the courts will do."
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