11 out of 21 PAC members reject chairman’s draft; question mark over key reform Bills.
Fierce fighting between members of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the opposition on Thursday put a question mark on the future of the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC’s) draft report on the telecom spectrum scam.
The UPA camp claimed the draft report had been rejected by a majority of the PAC members through voting. The opposition said the report was with Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi (of Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP) and no voting was held according to the official record.
As the day began, it became clear the PAC meeting would turn into a battlefield, after Congress members publicly sought Joshi’s resignation and dubbed the draft report “biased” and “malicious”.
As the meeting began, the UPA members raised their voices. Out of 21 members, 11 said the report should be scrapped. They included seven Congress members, two DMK members, the Samajwadi Party’s Revati Raman Singh and the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Baliram Kashyap. Joshi was supported by nine members. One post in the PAC is vacant.
As things hotted up, Joshi called for a lunch break and said he would like to speak in the second half. The same scene prevailed after the lunch. When Joshi adjourned the meeting and started walking out along with Parliament officials and opposition members, the Congress members shouted at the officials and asked them to stay back, saying the meeting would continue. After ‘electing’ a Congress Rajya Sabha MP, Saifuddin Soz, as the ‘chairman’ for the meeting, the UPA camp went to Joshi’s office to hand over a copy of their resolution rejecting the draft report.
The two SP and BSP members were given letters by the Congress leaders which they gave to Joshi along with another letter from the UPA members.
The three letters called for scrapping of the draft report and alleged it was “outsourced” and prepared by the chairman in “his personal capacity”. They also alleged incongruity between the narrative part and the report’s recommendations and findings.
The pro-government members also alleged that they did not get enough time to go through the 270-page report. Their demand to call former telecom minister A Raja and other witnesses was rejected, they said. They also questioned the hurry in presenting the report. Alleging “mistakes” in two pages of the English version, they said the report must be dumped.
The opposition hit back and asked how two members, K S Rao and Naveen Jindal, discussed the report in public when it was supposed to be classified. With the draft report circulated among the members, the job was done, they said. The UPA members said the probe was unfinished.
The confrontation may impact the government’s plan to get key reform Bills passed in the next session of Parliament. Already, the opposition is talking of delaying the reports of the Standing Committee on Finance, headed by BJP’s Yashwant Sinha. The committee is studying several key reform Bills, including on insurance.
Joshi has been advised by the opposition members to submit the report to the Lok Sabha Speaker’s office. A parliamentary committee report can be submitted to the Speaker when Parliament is not in session.
