The proceedings of the joint parliamentary committee constituted to probe the 2G spectrum allocation scam may not be smooth following “sharp divisions” on the party line and the “unprecedented” stormy meeting of the public accounts committee held here on Thursday.
Congress leader P.C. Chacko is heading the JPC but he is unlikely to take members with him because the Congress had first objected to the nomination of Mr Jaswant Singh and Mr Yashwant Sinha to the JPC, suggesting that they had played a role in setting telelcom policy during the Vajpayee government.
Secondly, the Congress has been wanting the PAC to confine itself to the CAG report on the 2G scam, ignoring that fact that its own ministers had been claiming that no scam took place in the allocation of spectrum even before waiting for the PAC report.
Besides, the consolidation of the UPA members along with the Samajwadi Party and the BSP in the PAC has given enough hints about how the JPC will function.
The Opposition got the JPC after a battle it fought in Parliament that virtually stalled the entire Winter Session.
But the proceedings of the PAC meetings have created bitterness and widened the rift between the Congress and the Opposition. The UPA members in the PAC have been consistent in opposing the committee expanding its scope of investigation and summoning officials in the PMO. They wanted former telecom minister A. Raja and some BJP leaders to be called for deposition.
It will be interesting to see how the Opposition members in the JPC work against the backdrop of these developments. The main opposition BJP on Thursday charged the UPA government with attacking government institutions one by one. “First Kapil Sibal attacked the CAG, then the others also attacked him. Then came the appointment of a person (with a tainted record) as CVC. Now a parliamentary committee is being attacked,” said BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.