Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) descended into chaos on Thursday after the UPA managed to secure the support of BSP and SP to obtain a surprising majority which 'rejected' the draft report on the 2G scam that was sharply critical of Prime Minister, his office and others.
Seven Congress MPs, supported by two from DMK, attacked the Chairman of the 21-member committee and veteran BJP leader M. M. Joshi over leakage of the report prepared by him which had made headlines.
The draft report had criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally for his 'desire' to keep the PMO at 'arm's length' on the issue of 2G allocation that allowed the then Telecom Minister A. Raja to execute his 'dubious designs' and was also critical of the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and officials of the PMO with regard to handling the scam.
For over three hours, these MPs sought to put the Chairman on the mat, accusing him of presenting a 'one-sided' report with 'malafide' intention and demanded his resignation.
These nine MPs found surprise support in one member each of SP and BSP who were expected to go along with rest of the Opposition comprising 6 of BJP excluding Joshi and one each from BJD, JD(U) and AIADMK.