Centre will inquire into allegation that Ananth Kumar leaked cabinet secrets: Narayanasamy

CHENNAI - Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanasamy on Monday said the Central Government will inquire into the allegation that cabinet secrets were leaked by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary Ananth Kumar to corporate lobbyist Niira Radia during the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule.

“If the allegation is true, then it would amount to being an anti-national act and the Centre would take action on it,” Narayanasamy told reporters here.

Radia’s former partner Rao Dheeraj Singh on Thursday alleged that when Ananth Kumar was the Union Civil Aviation Minister and later Union Urban Development Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government, he helped her by allotting land to a trust run by her.

Rao Dheeraj Singh also said that Kumar had helped Radia by offering her access to confidential files of the cabinet.

Further talking about the deadlock in the Parliament over the 2G scam issue, Narayanasamy said Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has convened al all-party meeting on December 30, 2010, to find a solution to it.

“The government was ready for a debate on the spectrum issue in the Parliament, but the Opposition parties including the BJP were not interested to go into the truth of the case,” said Narayanasamy.

“Going by past experience nothing would come out of such a probe. The Public Accounts Committee is more powerful than the JPC. The government has already committed to support it in its inquiry,” he added, while dismissing the demands of the Opposition for a JPC into the 2G-spectrum allocation.

Former Telecom Minister A. Raja was forced to resign last month after a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) faulted him for undervaluing spectrum to favour companies who were largely ineligible for 2G spectrum, and added that the government had probably lost Rs.1.76 lakh crore in estimated revenue. (ANI)