Despite the best efforts of its chairman Murli Manohar Joshi, Parliament?s public accounts committee (PAC) is unlikely to table its report on the 2G scam during the monsoon session. This is because the Congress members in the committee insist that Joshi should either get the key accused in the case A Raja depose before the panel or agree to confine the panel’s scrutiny to just the veracity of the CAG report on the scam and hand over the report to the joint parliamentary committee.
As the PAC is slated to meet on April 21, the stage is set for yet another showdown between Congress members and Joshi. Thursday?s meeting is ostensibly to discuss the difference of opinion between committee members on expanding the scope of PAC?s investigation from a mere purview of the CAG report to the larger issue of policy. Sources, however, say the agenda is very different from the stated one. ?It has been very clear for the last few weeks that Joshi has been setting a scorching pace on the 2G investigation,? said a source in the Congress party. ?Till the time the government had not conceded a JPC, this was fine for the ruling combine. Now, with a JPC being there, the Congress and DMK members in the committee are miffed over the fact that Joshi still wants a widespread investigation,? said a source.
?This will, in effect, quash Joshi?s plan to be ready with the report by April 30, when the tenure of the current PAC will end,? said the source. The term of office of members of the Committee does not exceed one year at a time. ?CBI director AP Singh and attorney general Goolam Vahanvati could not depose on Friday and cabinet secretary KM Chandrashekhar and principal secretary to the Prime Minister TKA Nair?s deposition the next day was cancelled. These indicate that the Congress means business,? added the source.
While conceding that the events of Friday have put a spanner in the works as far as an early completion of the PAC report is concerned, PAC member and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Bhratruhari Mahtab said that the demand for handing over papers from one parliamentary committee to another was not an easy job.
?Both are parliamentary committees, and the request for papers should come from the JPC,? he said. He added that there was only one way by which the government could prevent the PAC from coming out with a report. ?the government can request the Speaker that the PAC should confine itself to the CAG report and leave the rest to the JPC. However, there is no precedent for this, as PACs and JPCs have coexisted earlier,? he said.
As battlelines are being firmly drawn up for April 2, both sides seem to be marshalling arguments.