The mammoth Ludlum novel of the year is India’s telecom spectrum scam. Ludlum novels revolve around a group of crusading individuals stacked up against powerful adversaries who are hell-bent on using all means to thwart efforts at exposure. Suicide, subterfuge, damaged reputations and dramatic twists all race to a nail-biting end.
Like all gripping novels this too will also leave readers with a lasting perception. The latest hullabaloo at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, another chapter in the scam saga, risks painting the ruling party as the revenging rogue of the piece — one that it’s been working so hard to avoid.
A recent meeting by this committee headed by veteran BJP member Murli Manohar Joshi ended in a fiasco after he walked out of the meeting amid the usual babble of political voices disrupting proceedings. Of the 21-member committee, the majority or 11 of them, led by the UPA, voted against the findings of the committee which suggested that both the PM and the then finance minister could have done more to prevent what happened. It seems a series of alleged oversights led to the government losing out on valuable money that should accrue to the exchequer.
In tabling that the report the PAC was looking into what is primarily its duty — to see if the books of the government are in order and if not, what led to the distortion. Its findings, though often taken seriously, are definitely not judicially-binding.
Even so, after Joshi adjourned the meeting and walked out, the 11 members hastily voted against the report in the presence of a temporarily elected chairman for the committee, Saifuddin Soz. Having said that, there is little in India’s parliamentary history to suggest that this is indeed the norm.
Still, the ruling party along with its allies in that vote did precisely what the cynics were betting it would do — disrupt the proceedings and fall prey to the perception that it will muscle its way to diffuse the impact of the Committee’s findings. In aligning with parties, who are best left uncourted, the UPA may have painted a self portrait of standing for nothing and stooping to anything. Unfortunately for it, this episode comes close on the heels of a joltable moment in its history, when thousands gathered in support of Anna Hazare a few weeks ago. That gathering was the flare-up of a nation that’s forcing a government to change its ways and garner the will to deliver a clean establishment.
The PAC disruption, albeit against an opposition that is also looking for mileage from the mess, is doing little to endear it to a public that is looking for a change in tack. In doing so, it’s easy to single out the message that it cares as little about the sanctity of parliamentary institutions as does the opposition. Parliamentary committees, like this one, have to be given the institutional heft they hold in the Constitution. To vote against the findings is neither irregular nor wrong but the accepted way would be by adding a dissenting note that then becomes part of the report and is read with it. Any reservations members have about the alleged shoddy, hasty work of Joshi should have been elaborated upon and debated in Parliament. That would have restored the confidence of institutions.
Epictetus famously said men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them. The UPA, in its haste to knuckle-dust any fingers that point towards it, could be disturbing an entire nation.
Anjana Menon is executive editor, NDTV Profit
