PM writes to PAC: Willing to appear
In a move replete with political significance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tried to take the Opposition head-on on Monday by writing to the Public Accounts Committee to say he was willing to appear before the panel on the 2G scam issue. The PM made this offer in a letter to the PAC chairman, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi. The PM had said at the recent Congress plenary session that he was willing to appear before the PAC. There is no precedent for such a move by a Prime Minister.
Reacting to the PM’s letter, the PAC chairman, Dr Joshi, said the panel was examining “every aspect of the Prime Minister’s letter offering to appear before the PAC in the 2G spectrum issue”. He said, “If and when the PAC feels it will take an appropriate decision collectively, at an appropriate time, on the PM’s offer”. Dr Singh’s letter offering to appear before the PAC comes on a day when Comptroller and Auditor-General Vinod Rai briefed the committee about his report on allocation of 2G spectrum. The decision to ask Mr Rai to appear before the parliamentary committee was taken during its last meeting earlier this month. The committee has already invited views and suggestions on the issue of 2G spectrum allocation.
It may be recalled that addressing the concluding day of the Congress plenary, the Prime Minister had stated: “I have nothing to hide from the public at large, and as proof of my bona fides, I intend to write to the chairman of the PAC that I shall be happy to appear before the PAC if it chooses to ask me to do so.”
Though the Opposition, particularly the BJP, had consistently rejected the offer citing the PAC’s “limited mandate”, the Prime Minister’s move has caught them by surprise. However, BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said that “despite Prime Minister’s offer, our stand remains the same. We still want the JPC.” Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj tweeted: “If PAC is no different from JPC, then why is there a provision for a JPC in the rule book?” However, when asked about the BJP’s claim that the PAC has a limited mandate, Dr Joshi took a different line, saying the “PAC has no limitation”. He said that “even though framing of a policy does not fall under the PAC’s purview, it can supervise whether the policy is being implemented correctly”. Dr Joshi said that though ministers cannot be summoned, the “key players, including A. Raja, who is now an MP after quitting his ministerial berth, can be summoned”.
The Prime Minister’s offer is also being viewed as a move to gain credibility in the wake of the Opposition’s relentless attack on the government over the 2G scam. Dr Singh’s offer also sent a signal that the government was not willing to compromise on the issue of corruption. With talk of a Cabinet expansion doing the rounds, the PM’s letter to the PAC was also being read as a warning signal to his Cabinet colleagues that the government will not tolerate corruption. It may be recalled that the Opposition had stalled proceedings in the month-long Winter Session of Parliament on the demand for a JPC probe of the allocation of 2G spectrum.
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