New Delhi, September 27
Despite protests from the main Opposition party, the BJP, and dissenting notes from some of the members, the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) today adopted its controversial draft report on the 2G spectrum allocation case which seeks to give a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Rejecting the claims of country's highest audit body, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of a possible loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer as a result of the faulty distribution of the spectrum licences, of the 27 members, who were present for the last meeting of the JPC, 16 members voted in favour of the report and 11 against the report, said JPC Chairman PC Chacko. The Janata Dal United members abstained from voting on the report while BJP's Gopinath Munde was also not present.

As the Opposition, led by the BJP and the Left Parties, called the adopting of the report as "sham and mockery and an attempt to cover up", Chairman Chacko said the report was "adopted by majority".

The BJP complained that "a contrived majority" was used to adopt the report on the controversial 2G spectrum allocations at the JPC meeting on Friday and said it would give a dissent note.

Incidentally, UPA's one-time ally DMK and the parent party of former Telecom Minister A. Raja, who is the main accused in the allocation scam, voted against the adoption of the report.

Its member in the committee, TR Baalu, has also submitted a dissenting note with regard to the adopting of the report. The DMK, like some of the other opposition parties, wanted that Raja should be called again by the JPC. This especially after Raja had in April sent in a 106 page letter detailing various aspects of the spectrum allocation in 2010 and claiming that he had kept the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister in know of the allocation process.

The JPC, led by Chacko, had been set up to investigate the alleged 2G spectrum allocation scam after the CAG came out with the report alleging a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer when Raja distributed telecom licences on a first-come-first-serve basis, forcing the Supreme Court to cancel the licences in February 2012.

Chacko said the JPC members have been 15 days time to give in their dissent notes if any. The same would be attached to the final report which would be presented to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar by the end of October. "Members have time till October 10 to submit their dissent notes if any," Chacko said.

Besides, Baalu, CPM member Sitaram Yechuri has also given a dissent note and also said that the Prime Minister should have answered the questions raised by Raja.

CPI member Gurudas Dasgupta called the adoption of the report as a big "sham and mockery". He said that now not only Raja was in the dock but the JPC itself.

When asked to comment on the claims of CAG on the loss figure, Chacko said the JPC has dealt with the issue in detail. Talking to mediapersons after the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee here, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha said the report was based on "wrong facts and falsehoods."