Home minister must resign: BJP

Reacting to home minister P Chidambaram’s statement that the BJP had got its facts wrong while accusing him of involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation, the party hit back, saying that the minister needed to answer why he changed his stand on the spectrum pricing.

Reacting to home minister P Chidambaram’s statement that the BJP had got its facts wrong while accusing him of involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation — the BJP had confused a company’s employee conversing with Niira Radia with former telecom minister A Raja — the party hit back, saying that the minister needed to answer why he changed his stand on the spectrum pricing.

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“Till the end of December 2007, the finance ministry… was insisting that the 2G spectrum should not be sold in 2008 at the rate that prevailed in 2001,” said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar. “But Chidambaram suddenly changed his stand vide his 15 January 2008 letter, where he mentioned that… auction should be adopted in future. This is not a case of ignorance or innocence but… complicity.”

Demanding the home minister’s resignation or sacking, the party also reiterated its demand that textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran also be sacked.

The BJP also attacked the Congress for dubbing party president Nitin Gadkari’s statement against Sonia Gandhi as “gutter-level” and demanding an apology, saying it was the Congress that should apologise for using statements like maut ka saudagar and man-eater for a chief minister (Narendra Modi). BJP spokesperson JP Nadda said, “What Gadkari has said about Sonia Gandhi is a very, very apt observation and it is factual.”