CONGRESS WANTS JPC TO PROBE ‘SECURITY BREACH’

NEW DELHI: The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest executive body, on Friday stepped up its attack on the chat transcripts between journalist Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta, demanding a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into what it called a breach of national security.

The transcripts of the chats between the editor-in-chief of Republic TV and the ex-CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council were part of a Mumbai Police probe into an alleged television ratings scam. The portions of the chat referred by the Congress pertain to the 2019 Pulwama attack and India’s retaliation.

“The CWC demands a timebound investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee to enquire into the breach of national security, violations of the Official Secrets Act and the role of the persons involved. Ultimately, those who are guilty of treasonous behaviour must be brought before the law and punished,” the CWC resolution said.

CWC met on Friday to discuss dates for organisational polls, the farm protests and the chat leak. Its resolution, read out to the media by general secretaries Randeep Surjewala and KC Venugopal, said that CWC expresses its “grave concern at recent revelations “exposing the “sordid conversations that have undoubtedly compromised national security”.

The Congress maintained that people in the “highest echelons of government” were involved in the breach, raising secrecy concerns of “vital and sensitive military operations”.

“The revelations also point to inexcusable and deliberate subversion of government structures, scandalous and extraneous influence over Government policies, and a vicious attack on the independence of the judiciary. The shameful compromise of the Modi Government with non-government players has been exposed,” it said.