NEW DELHI: The government appeared close to agreeing to a parliamentary probe into India's biggest corruption scandal in decades Tuesday after a possible climbdown by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to enable the parliament to resume its work and pass a budget. At the center of the graft charges is a potential $39 billion fraud in the awarding of telecoms licences in 2008. The opposition forced the December parliament session to shut, demanding a parliamentary probe into the scam. The potential political breakthrough came as India's federal auditor began probing a possibly larger scam involving the allocation of satellite-based communication spectrum that reports said may have cost state coffers 2 trillion rupees ($44 billion). On Tuesday, the government held its third round of talks with opposition parties in a bid to break the deadlock. Several members of the ruling coalition who attended the meeting said the government would likely agree to a joint investigation with opposition members and broad powers.
