After the joint parliamentary committee's chairman P C Chako (Congress) decided to check losses incurred due to the NDA government's 1999 national telecom policy, both the senior members of the Bhartiya Janata Party on committee have decided to fight back the insinuation.

Then finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Thursday offered to depose before the JPC to explain the policy as chairman of the then group of ministers (GoM), while Jaswant Singh pointed out that he was the planning commission deputy chairman during formation of the 10th five-year plan and its prime focus was on increasing tele-density and not the revenue generation.

Following prime minister Manmohan Singh who had offered to appear before the public accounts committee (PAC) in the 2G spectrum scam, Sinha volunteered to get into the witness box of the JPC for questioning.

The BJP and other opposition members also smelt a rat in the telecom officers appearing before the JPC on Wednesday and Thursday giving presentations connected with the 2000 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). They forced Chacko to issue orders that all further presentations must also cover another CAG report of 2010 exposing the 2G scam.

After it finalises the list of witnesses to be examined at the next meeting on May 30, the JPC will meet on June 7-8 to question the CBI chief and the CAG respectively and then kick off recording of evidences from June 29, holding at least two sittings every week.

Chako said all former telecom ministers and former telecom secretaries are being issued notices to appear in the JPC's witness box. As regards former attorney general Soli Sorabjee to be summoned to quiz him on the legal advice he rendered to the then NDA government for migration from fixed revenue to revenue sharing mechanism, Chako said a notice will go out to him only after the list of witnesses is finalised.

He said submissions of TRAI chairman J S Sarma remained inconclusive and will be taken up further at the next meeting on May 30. He also directed the DoT officials to submit all relevant documents, cabinet decisions, notings and any other communications regarding the Universal Access Service Licence (UASL) and spectrum released by the defence forces.