Joshi submits PAC report on 2G scam to Speaker
Unmindful of 'rejection' of the draft report on 2G scam by UPA members, PAC chairman Murli Manmohar Joshi on Saturday submitted it to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and insisted that it be tabled in Parliament.
Hours after he sent the report to the Speaker's office on the last day of tenure of the current PAC, he dismissed the UPA members' claim that the report had been rejected.
"I have submitted the report. My expectation is that the Speaker should accept it and place it in Parliament," he said addressing a press conference.
Terming as "unconstitutional" the claim that 11MPs of the 21-member committee had "rejected" the report, he said such a possibility does not exist till the report is "read" by members and "discussed" para by para.
"It is wrong to say that 11 members have rejected (the report). It is unconstitutional," he maintained about the report which was sharply critical of the Prime Minister, PMO and the then finance minister P. Chidambaram among others.
The veteran BJP leader accused the government trying to subvert the functioning of a PAC and questioned whether a constitutionally-empowered Parliamentary panel should work on party lines.
Expressing "anguish" over the happenings in the committee on April 15 and on Thursday, he claimed that witnesses were told by the ruling side members not to answer questions.
"This is the most unfortunate way in which members were functioning in the committee. If the committee itself obstructs someone (witness) from answering, then what is the meaning of questions and answers," the PAC chief said.
He alleged that on Thursday, during the last meeting of the committee, ministers were passing on "chits" and "calling up" PAC members to speak and behave in a particular manner.
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