PAC spat on 2G intensifies between Chidambaram, Joshi

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The spat between the government and opposition over the PAC report on 2G scam escalated today with Home Minister P. Chidambaram lashing out at the Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi, who was planning to push forward his controversial report.

Chidambaram, who had come in for criticism in the draft report of the 21-member parliamentary committee on spectrum allocation, accused the veteran BJP leader of 'gross distortion' of his role as Finance Minister in 2008.

Joshi's voluminous report, which was subsequently 'rejected' by a majority consisting of Congress, DMK, SP and BSP members, had said that the then Finance Minister had pleaded with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to treat the matter the matter of Spectrum fee as closed.

The Home Minister lost no no time in attacking Joshi's draft which he said was a 'gross distortion' of his note of January 15 of 2008 because it had 'mischievously' commented that he had pleaded that the matter be closed.

The draft report did not say what the 'matter' was.

It 'deliberately and mischievously' omitted the suggestion regarding charging the licensees prospectively, he said.

"I am constrained to observe once again that even a person with average intelligence would have noticed that the note did not deal with entry fee at all; in fact, it did say so," the Minister said in a statement.

Joshi, on his part, did not not say anything in public but consulted 9 PAC members belonging to NDA, AIADMK and BJD on the future course of action following the revolt by the ruling UPA side, whose 11 MPs yesterday rejected his report.

The consultations focused on the possibility of Joshi submitting his report to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar before his term ends tomorrow.

But Joshi's BJP colleague in the Committee Yashwant Sinha accused the Prime Minister and Chidambaram of 'direct complicity' in the spectrum issue and called the UPA 'coalition of the corrupt'.