Says PM’s move not in sync with the Constitutional position.
In the first objection from within the Congress, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he is not in favour of the prime minister appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the 2G spectrum issue, as he was accountable to the Lok Sabha and “not to any committee”.
“The prime minister’s offer to appear before the PAC was a decision taken by him without consulting us. If he had discussed it with me, I would have advised him not to offer to appear before the PAC,” the senior Congress leader told a special meeting of the West Bengal PCC here.
“Constitutionally, the prime minister is accountable to the Lok Sabha and not to any committee,” Mukherjee said on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s letter to the Parliament’s PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi on December 27, offering to appear before it in the 2G spectrum scam probe.
The finance minister said he was a “conservative, who believed in following rules of the House”.
“Why does a minister not appear before a parliamentary committee? The reason is simple, because the minister is answerable to the House (Lok Sabha) or to the Assembly.”
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He said there was only one such precedent when Manmohan Singh as finance minister had appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee in the Harshad Mehta stock market scam in 1992.
On December 20, Singh, during the Congress plenary in Delhi, had said he was ready to appear before the PAC in the 2G spectrum issue as he had nothing to hide, after the Opposition had stalled the Parliament’s winter session over the demand for a JPC.
Joshi, who belongs to the BJP, had initially not ruled out accepting the prime minister’s offer, but later said a decision on the issue would be taken after consulting legal experts.
Despite the prime minister’s offer, the opposition has remained unmoved on its demand for a JPC.
Rejecting the JPC demand, Mukherjee asked, “What is the need for a JPC? It is not in the Lok Sabha rules. JPC is not a court or an investigative agency. It does not have the power to punish the guilty.
“Let the Opposition say why a JPC is needed, but we will explain why it is not needed. The prime minister is not scared. He himself is open to being questioned,” the finance minister said.
If the PAC accepts the offer, it will be the first time that a prime minister would have appeared before the Committee, which has MPs from both the Houses, belonging to parties of the ruling coalition and the opposition.
According to rules and procedures governing the functioning of Parliamentary committees, no minister can appear before a Lok Sabha committee without prior sanction of the Speaker.
Meanwhile, the Opposition BJP today asked the government how it claims to ensure a fair inquiry into the 2G spectrum scam when the finance minister is not in agreement with the prime minister on the latter’s offer to appear before the PAC on the issue.
“The country is certainly entitled to know if the No. 2 of Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet is not in agreement with him, then on what basis is he claiming that his offer to appear before the PAC can ensure a fair investigation into the 2G scam?" BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.