The reconstituted Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by senior BJP leader M.M. Joshi on Monday saw Congress members seeking to corner Dr Joshi on the 2G spectrum issue and the NDA members counselling restraint.
Soon after the first meeting of the reconstituted committee convened, Congress members Jayanthi Natarajan and Girija Vyas wanted Dr Joshi to clarify on the committee’s “report” on issue and wanted to know the status of the “so called report”.
Sources said at this point Shiv Sena’s Anandrao Adsul, JD(U)’s Naresh Gujral and BJP’s Prakash Javadekar contended that raising issues related to the 2G matter would only lead to bad blood and do no good to the committee.
“Let bygones be bygones,” was their refrain, sources disclosed.
Congress member K. Sudhakaran said he had given a dissent note on the 2G scam matter and sought to know what was done with it.
Dr Joshi told the committee that he had submitted to the 2G scam report to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar along with the dissent note of Mr Sudhakaran. BJD’s B. Mahtab asked the members to make a new beginning and making allegations and countering the same would not help in the functioning of the Committee.
The chair also asked members to refrain from indulging in party politics in the Committee meetings. The PAC is understood to have decided against holding press conferences on the proceedings.
After customary introduction of members, the Committee deliberated on issues to be taken up for examination during its tenure. It is understood that the committee decided to take up matters
related to defence, the Medical Council of India among others.
The last meeting of the PAC was a stormy one following disagreement over the draft report on matters related to 2G spectrum allocation. Congress, DMK, SP and BSP members had given dissent notes on the draft report following which Dr Joshi claimed to have adjourned the meeting.