No reason for government to reject parliamentary probe demand: LK Advani

Senior BJP leader LK Advani today questioned the reluctance of the Congress-led UPA government to order a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the second-generation mobile telephony spectrum scam, which had allegedly caused a loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.

"I do not see any reason for the government not to accept the opposition demand for a JPC (to probe the 2G mobile bandwidth allocation) as the CAG had pointed out that the scam led to a loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore," he said in Bhopal.

Advani said the contents of tapes related to the 2G scam were "very serious" and nothing short of a JPC will serve the purpose. The tapes had conversations between a corporate lobbyist, politicians, journalists and industrialists.

He was addressing a function organised here to mark the completion of five years in power of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Not only the entire opposition, but even some allies of the UPA were in favour of a JPC probe into the scandal, he said, without elaborating.

When the BJP-led NDA was in power, it had set up two or three JPCs, the former deputy prime minister said.

Talking to reporters later, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj blamed the UPA government for the current impasse in Parliament over the JPC issue.

She said once the government announces setting up of MPs' panel, Parliament will resume normal functioning.