The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) looking into the 2G scam is split over who should be questioned. Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi is keen that many persons from industry, politics and media who figured in the taped conversations of lobbyist Niira Radia also depose before the panel. Some members of the committee have, however, said that the focus must remain strictly on issues related to the allocation of 2G spectrum.
Quite apart from the question of whether JD(U) MP NK Singh, who is a member of the PAC and has been mentioned in connection with the tapes, should be present at Radia?s hearing, the question many MPs seem to be asking is whether all the people whose taped conversations were leaked to the media need to depose before the PAC.
The overall view of the majority of the committee seems to be that only those relevant to the telecom scam around former telecom minister A Raja need be called in the initial phase, sources said.
On another front, MPs ? especially those from the Congress party, which has been on the back foot on the 2G scam for months now ? are going to insist that former Union minister Ananth Kumar and even former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee?s son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya be asked to depose.
?This is going to open a can of worms, as the scope of the PAC’s investigation is getting wider and wider,? said a senior Congress MP.
NK Singh, sources in the PAC confirm, has in the meanwhile conveyed to Joshi that he was willing to recuse himself from the specific hearings related to the tapes if there was the slightest conflict of interest perceived by the committee. He has, however, told the PAC chairman that his conversations with Radia had nothing at all to do with the telecom matter being inquired into.