New Delhi, Aug 1 (IANS) Training its guns on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the first day of parliament's monsoon session, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday alleged he was involved in “micro management” of the controversial 2G spectrum allocation and blamed him for spoiling the atmospherics ahead of the parliament session by attacking the opposition.


BJP's leaders of opposition in the two houses Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley led the charge against the prime minister at a joint press conference Monday.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram, in a rebuttal, said the stepped up attack by the main opposition party was running parallel to the pace of investigations in some terror cases, in which some right-wing Hindu outfits are allegedly involved.

Referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks Sunday that the opposition had too many skeletons in its cupboard, Sushma Swaraj termed the comments as "totally unprovoked".

“We were of the opinion that for the first time in recent years the government had started on a positive note. But regrettably, an ill-advised comment by the prime minister has vitiated the environment for which the initiative had come from his party and government,” Sushma Swaraj said.

Signalling the tough position it would take inside the house, the BJP said it wanted discussion on price rise and corruption under rules that entail voting. Sushma Swaraj said her party had given notice in Lok Sabha for discussion on price rise under rule 184, which entails voting.

Jaitley said the possible rationale for the prime minister's attack could be his being asked many questions in relation to his own role in the allocation of the 2G spectrum.

“The prime minister has changed his stand several times on the 2G scandal. From an initial support to his minister A. Raja, he then pleaded ignorance about telecom matters and informed parliament that he had trusted the judgement of his ministers,” Jaitley said.

Referring to the statement by the Prime Minister's Office Sunday, Jaitley said the PMO had rejected the ‘arm's length distance’ theory and instead wanted to give an impression that the prime minister was ‘hands on’ when it came to the allotment of spectrum.

He said Raja had kept the prime minister informed about various aspects of the 2G spectrum allocation and had written nine letters to Manmohan Singh.

Accusing the prime minister of adopting “inconsistent positions", Jaitley posed him seven questions.

He asked if the prime minister had meekly given in to former communications minister Dayanidhi Maran's proposal that entry fee would be decided by him and not by a group of ministers.

“Did it not strike the prime minister that after insisting on auction as the only fair methodology, his finance minister suddenly changed his stance... if the prime minister received nine letters from Raja giving all minute details, did it not strike him that spectrum was being sold for a song... Did it not strike the prime minister that if a sale of a fraction of the shares of a company which owned the licence and the spectrum could fetch Rs.6,000 crore, how could the government have allotted the entire spectrum at Rs.1,651 crore... Did this advancement of date not appear motivated to the PM... Did the unfairness of the procedure not alert the PM,” Jaitley said, pointing to different aspects on the 2G spectrum controversy.

Jaitley said they expected the prime minister to answer all the questions.

BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said the party wanted an urgent discussion in parliament on the role of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram on the 2G spectrum scam, saying they were "an equal party" in the scam.

Chidambaram, who has also been under fire from BJP in the 2G spectrum allocation, said the government will respond to the allegations if they are raised in parliament.

“Their (BJP) step up in attack is running parallel to the pace of investigations in some terror cases,” Chidambaram told reporters here, giving the monthly status of his ministry.