Snubbing the BJP and making it clear that he would not oblige them in the least, expelled leader Jaswant Singh has convened the first meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) next week in his capacity as chairperson of the powerful parliamentary panel.
Singh, who on Monday bluntly turned down the BJP leadership?s request to step down on his own as chief of the parliamentary panel, has gone ahead and written to the 22 PAC members seeking their presence at the first meeting of the committee on September 7. Unless Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar makes an intervention, Singh will be chairing the panel meet, sources close to Singh said on Tuesday.
BJP deputy leaders in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively, Sushma Swaraj and SS Ahluwalia had called on Jaswant Singh on Monday carrying the party?s appeal to leave the PAC for the main opposition. In no mood to oblige, Singh is understood to have told the BJP leaders that he found surprising their move to rush to him with the plea as he no longer was a member of the party. Senior BJP leader LK Advani had also called on the Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar later on Monday evening, which had triggered speculation over whether the party had formally approached her with the request for a change in the PAC chairmanship.
According to UPA sources, the focus could turn on what stand the Lok Sabha Speaker takes on the issue, in the event that she gets a formal request from the main Opposition party. What makes her task all that difficult is that there has never been a precedent on midway change of chairmanship of the PAC. The rules too are not very clear with Rule No 258 (2) of the Lok Sabha only saying that ?if the chairman is for any reason unable to act, the Speaker may appoint another chairman in his place?.
Singh, who now represents Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency, on Tuesday reiterated his stand before reporters that he would not step down as the PAC chairperson. ?I am not (going to resign). This cannot be a decision that the party (BJP) can take because the determination of the post and the decision is that of the Lok Sabha Speaker and not of a political party,? he said in the Supreme court premises.
Before his expulsion, Jaswant Singh, being the senior-most of the three BJP MPs nominated to the PAC from the party, was appointed the chairperson of the committee. The other two BJP members are Yashwant Sinha and Gopinath Munde. Singh was expelled from the party on August 19 during the BJP chintan baithak in Shimla for his remarks in his book Jinnah ? India, Partition, Independence.