Shahid Balwa, promoter of Swan Telecom who is in jailed in connection with the 2G case, wants to depose before the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the spectrum scam. Balwa has written to JPC chairman P C Chacko saying that the parliamentary panel should hear him, according to his counsel Vijay Agarwal.
The response of the JPC chairman will be interesting to watch because of the fallout that Balwa's testimony can have for the government. Balwa, like his co-accused A Raja, has maintained that he did not engage in any illegality and that the licence and spectrum Swan Telecom got from the sacked telecom minister was in keeping with the policy of the government as a whole. In his bail application, he had refuted the allegation of quid pro quo between him and Raja saying that the policy under which he got the licence had PM Manmohan Singh's approval. Congress circles had for long been apprehensive of the possibility of Singh and his principal secretary T K A Nair getting drawn deeper into the spectrum scam quagmire. Party leaders apprehend that Raja will also defend himself by citing the correspondence with the PM, while recognizing that the letters from the PMO leave room to argue that no effort was made to stop the sacked telecom minister.
Conversely, Opposition will be looking forward to any testimony that may implicate the PM and his office, so that it can argue that the spectrum scam could not be blamed on DMK alone.
The response of the JPC chairman will be interesting to watch because of the fallout that Balwa's testimony can have for the government. Balwa, like his co-accused A Raja, has maintained that he did not engage in any illegality and that the licence and spectrum Swan Telecom got from the sacked telecom minister was in keeping with the policy of the government as a whole. In his bail application, he had refuted the allegation of quid pro quo between him and Raja saying that the policy under which he got the licence had PM Manmohan Singh's approval. Congress circles had for long been apprehensive of the possibility of Singh and his principal secretary T K A Nair getting drawn deeper into the spectrum scam quagmire. Party leaders apprehend that Raja will also defend himself by citing the correspondence with the PM, while recognizing that the letters from the PMO leave room to argue that no effort was made to stop the sacked telecom minister.
Conversely, Opposition will be looking forward to any testimony that may implicate the PM and his office, so that it can argue that the spectrum scam could not be blamed on DMK alone.
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