April 19: Former telecom minister A. Raja today questioned the joint parliamentary committee draft report that exonerated the Prime Minister, asserting he had done everything “in consultation with the PM”.

Raja told journalists at the Chennai airport on his return from Delhi that he was confident of proving his innocence. “I am going to give a detailed note of 100 pages to JPC,” the DMK MP said. “I hope the JPC will call me after my detailed note.”

The former telecom minister, who was jailed in the 2G scandal, said: “I did everything in consultation with the PM. I will prove my innocence.”

Earlier, his party chief M. Karunanidhi had expressed surprise at the draft report that pinned the blame for the scandal on Raja. “How can a minister mislead the Prime Minister?” Karunanidhi said. “It is difficult to believe that a minister can mislead the Prime Minister.”

Although the 2G scandal and the arrest of Raja and Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi had put enormous strain on DMK-Congress ties, the Dravidian party had stuck with the Congress. It quit the UPA last month citing inaction on the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils.

DMK spokesperson Elangovan said today: “The JPC report has no meaning, as it did not call Raja for deposing.”

The BJP called the report a “Congress document” and alleged that it was motivated with an “overpowering desire to save the party’s leaders” including the Prime Minister and finance minister P. Chidambaram.

Rapping the committee for leaking the report to the media yesterday, party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “This is a gross breach of parliamentary propriety because any draft report is first discussed and debated, amendments are moved in a formal meeting and thereafter views are solicited.”

The BJP would not accept the contents put out so far, Prasad said. “We have strong objections over it. We shall convey our objections, firmly and forcefully, in the next JPC meeting,” he said. The panel is scheduled to meet on April 25.

The Left was considering moving a privilege motion against the JPC head and Congress MP P.C. Chacko over the leak, sources said.

The BJP is likely to finalise its strategy for a follow-up in tandem with its NDA allies at a meeting tomorrow. It plans to raise the contents of the report and its leak “in a big way” in Parliament when the budget session resumes on April 22.