The tussle over jurisdiction between the two parliamentary panels probing the 2G spectrum scam has turned more acrimonious. Even as the country?s top industrialists prepare to appear as witnesses before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over the alleged allocation of spectrum by former telecom minister A Raja at throwaway prices, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar is yet to take a call on which committee would do what.
In what turned out to be an open turf war between PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi and JPC chief PC Chacko, the Speaker, who had called a meeting on the matter on Friday, refrained from pronouncing judgement on the issue just yet.
Home truths and parliamentary rulebooks were thrown at each other by the chiefs of the two parliamentary committees. Chacko went so far as to suggest that members of Joshi?s PAC were not being taken into confidence by the chairman over the witness list and expansion of the scope of the PAC’s probe.
?It is my information that there is no consensus among members of the PAC over the witnesses to be called and wide-basing the enquiry,? Chacko said after the meeting.
Chacko for his part has been waging a battle with Joshi and contesting the PAC?s claim to investigate the 2G spectrum scam saying that the formation of the JPC, as demanded by the Opposition itself, had made the PAC?s probe redundant. In the meeting with Kumar, Chacko cited the rulebook when Joshi said that the PAC was a Constitutional body.
?The PAC is not a Constitutional body, all committees are parliamentary bodies and according to rule 283 (1) of the rulebook, the Speaker has the authority to correct, restrict or guide any chairman,? Chacko said. ?I told the Speaker that it would look ridiculous if two committees conducted a parallel enquiry. The question of whose report is to be accepted by the government also arises,? he said. ? The PAC should stay out of areas which encroach on ours, by virtue of the terms of referrence of our committee,? he said. Joshi, Chacko said, should not have any difficulty with that since it was his own party, the BJP, which had not allowed the entire winter session of Parliament to run, demanding the constitution of a JPC. The matter now rests with the Speaker, but the PAC is all set to cross-examine lobbyist Niira Radia and industrialist Ratan Tata on Monday, and R-Adag chairman Anil Ambani on Tuesday. The next meeting of the JPC is on May 18, after the counting of votes for the Assembly elections is over in four states and one Union Territory.