Lawmakers from the ruling Congress party and the Opposition BJP on Friday clashed over where to draw the boundaries for the public accounts committee (PAC) probing the 2G scam. The unprecedented rift within the PAC has landed the long-run Parliamentary institution in deep trouble.
The Congress is annoyed by the apparent bid of the PAC headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi to usurp the mandate of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) set up for the exclusive purpose of probing the scam. According to sources in the PAC, the Congress members of the committee challenged Joshi’s right to summon witnesses and widen the scope of the 2G probe to something much beyond an audit review.
Joshi retorted equally vehemently, and a war of words ensued. The widening of the 2G probe had already been a contentious issue between Joshi and JPC chief PC Chacko and has reached the court of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
According to the witness schedule of the PAC, CBI director AP Singh, law secretary DR Meena and attorney-general Ghoolam Vahanavati were to appear before the committee on Friday. While Meena and Singh arrived early for their deposition, both had to cool their heels in Joshi’s office for nearly three hours as PAC members went hammer and tongs at each other in a no-holds-barred fight over the powers of the PAC. In the end, only Meena’s deposition was heard, that too for just 15 minutes.
According to sources in the PAC, it was mainly the Congress members of the PAC ? KS Rao, Jitender Singh and Arun Kumar ? who challenged Joshi?s prerogative to summon witnesses.
Sources said, ?KS Rao asked as to what was the use of summoning witnesses who only said that the matter was sub-judice and that they could not answer any questions.? At this, Joshi is reported to have replied that ?today’s witnesses are not of that description and can be cross questioned, so why waste time.?
Jitender Singh then demanded to know from Joshi as to why the main accused A Raja had not been summoned, if the PAC had to go beyond its jurisdiction. ?Joshi was clear that the process of summoning Raja while he was in jail would be too cumbersome,? said a source. Loud arguments followed over the timing of circulation of papers, with Congress members accusing the chairman of circulating papers at the last moment concerning any of the witnesses. ?Only you get to cross question them,? said one Congress member. Joshi got irate at that and said that it wasn?t his ?problem? if the said member was not present when papers were circulated.
Sources close to Joshi said that he was pretty much on his own in this fight and accused the Congress members of trying to create trouble in order to prevent Vahanavati from deposing. Vahanavati’s legal opinion on the 2G allocation has the capacity to embarrass the government yet again and Congress members, he said, adding that the Congress MPs were keen to avoid it. Sources also said that tomorrow’s scheduled deposition of Cabinet secretary KM Chandrashekhar and principal secretary to the Prime Minister T K A Nair was also sought to be avoided. ?If that was the motive then the Congressmen have succeeded, as tomorrow’s meeting stands cancelled and the next meeting would be on 21st April, and that too to discuss just who can be summoned as witnesses,? said a source. Thus, PMO officials will get a breather. The JPC’s first meeting is scheduled for May 18. The PAC enquiry in fact seems to have turned into a race against time for Joshi, who will remain chairman even after this current committee’s term expires on April 30. Joshi is apparently is keen that his report comes out before the JPC’s first meeting. This could embarrass the government and inhibit the JPC. The explosive meeting of the PAC on Friday demonstrates clearly that despite all the progress on the case, India’s biggest scam still has the potential to deeply embarrass the government.