PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi talks to the media after the committees meeting on the 2G spectrum scam at Parliament

Amidst high drama and pandemonium, a crucial meeting of Parliament’s public accounts committee (PAC) examining the 2G spectrum allocation scam saw the “rejection” of its draft report by a majority of its members on Thursday. The SP and the BSP supported the ruling coalition, giving it the necessary “majority” on the parliamentary panel.

The report was “rejected” even as PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi of the BJP walked out of the meeting he was chairing barely five minutes into the second half of proceedings that began at 4 pm. The “rejection” came amidst bedlam as Congress member Saifuddin Soz rushed to occupy the chairman’s chair after he was “elected” PAC head once Dr Joshi had exited the room. A “resolution” was then passed by 11 of the 21-member PAC, thus making it something “passed” by a “majority”.
Amidst the claims and counter-claims being made by the ruling coalition and the BJP on Thursday’s PAC proceedings, the ball now rests firmly in Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar’s court. The current PAC’s tenure ends April 30 by when the 2G report has to be submitted. The Congress, for now, is saying the report stands “rejected”.
The second half’s proceedings also apparently saw unruly behaviour by some members and charges that the Lok Sabha Secretariat staff on duty was “forced” to remain at the meeting venue after Dr Joshi walked out. As for the crucial question on whether Dr Joshi had adjourned the meeting before walking out, the BJP leader maintained he had done so. The Congress, however, maintained that once a resolution has been moved a meeting cannot be adjourned.
Appearing visibly miffed at the charges levelled by some Congress members, Dr Joshi, while striding away from the conference room, said he had left the meeting as Congress members had alleged that the draft report had been “outsourced” by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, “an allegation that I will have to take seriously”.
The five Congress MPs on the parliamentary panel though claimed that Dr Joshi walked out in a huff upon their insistence that the resolution moved by 11 PAC members “rejecting” the draft report be put to vote in the 21-member PAC. Among the 11 members who had moved the resolution, seven belonged to the Congress, two to the DMK and one each to the SP and the BSP.
The unfolding drama didn’t remain confined to the conference room where the meeting was held. It spilled into Parliament’s corridors with PAC chairman M.M. Joshi and Congress members trading charges outside. PAC members belonging to other parties too aired their views on the happenings within the four walls of the conference room.
Later, while the Congress claimed that what its members on the parliamentary panel had done was as per the rules and the draft report now stood formally “rejected”, the BJP accused it of trying to scuttle the report which has indicted former telecom minister A. Raja and slammed the PM, the PMO as well as the Cabinet Secretariat in the 2G spectrum scam. It alleged that Thursday’s events were an attempt by the UPA to stall the probe into the 2G scam.
What triggered a rapid unfolding of dramatic events after the PAC reconvened at 4 pm following a two-hour break appears to have been the demand made by Congress member Saifuddin Soz that the resolution moved by 11 members in the morning be put to vote. With Mr Soz also reportedly levelling the “outsourcing” charge, Dr Joshi made a swift exit from the room. With those not supporting this ruling coalition also having left the room, the resolution “rejecting” the draft report was passed without fuss.
Mr Soz later told reporters that he would be presenting the proceedings held under his chairmanship to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. Mr Soz, in fact, even went to Dr Joshi’s room in Parliament to hand over to his staff a copy of the “resolution” that had been passed rejecting the draft report.
Asked repeatedly by reporters if he would be giving his own report to the Speaker by April 3 — the present PAC’s term ends that day — all that Dr Joshi would say is, “You say what you want to say. I had adjourned the meeting.”
It was during the morning session itself that the Congress MPs had handed over a letter to Dr Joshi demanding that the draft report be put to vote as 11 members in all had rejected it in identical requests. Alleging “malafide intentions” behind the report, they said the aim was to destabilise the government and some even demanded his resignation.
While various members aired their views on the draft report with some expressing concern over its “leakage” and seeking a CBI inquiry into it, the atmosphere was more or less cordial during the three-hour morning session. Union minister for information and broadcasting Ambika Soni said the government “will find out” how the report was leaked.
But as later events show, things had soured considerably in the afternoon. Congress MP Naveen Jindal, a member of the PAC, said the draft report was “biased and not based on facts”. Congress leaders privately admitted that they were “surprised and taken aback” at the report’s leakage.