Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday broke his silence on the scams that have tarnished the image of the United Progressive Alliance government.
Addressing editors of prominent television news channels in New Delhi, the Prime Minister said: "I wish to assure the country as a whole our government is dead serious to bring to book all the wrongdoers regardless of their position in 2G spectrum, CWG, ISRO and Adarsh scams."
Here are some pointers of what the prime minister said:
1) I am not afraid of appearing before any Committee, including JPC, I will be quite happy to appear before any committee
2) In a coalition government, you have to make certain compromises
3) I never felt like resigning, I have a job to do. I never thought of giving up half-way
4) I had conveyed to A Raja the concerns over 2G spectrum issue but did not press further for auction after Ministries of Telecom and Finance agreed to go by the prevailing system of first-come first-served basis
5) Raja said auctions are not the way forward for the 2G spectrum. He was clear that he should stay with existing approach. Pricing and location of spectrum was to be settled between ministry of finance and telecom department. If the MoF and telecom ministry agreed, I decided not to intervene and did not feel in a position to insist auctions should exist
6) Parliament has not been allowed to function for reasons I am not able to understand, we are making honest efforts to see the next session will be an orderly session
7) After the Budget Session of Parliament, there will be a restructuring of the Cabinet
8) We have to deal with inflation despite an adverse international environment. At the end of the fiscal the inflation should come down to 7 per cent.
9) Disproportionate rise of food prices have hurt poor people but we have tried to insulate them
10) By projecting that we are a scam-driven country, we are weakening the self-confidence
11) There has been no effort in the PMO to dilute the decision of the Space Commission to annul the agreement between Antrix and Devas
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