A curious case of committees

The celebrity of the week is Pompeia Sulla. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gets full marks for bringing her back to life, making the dull beauty the talk of the town and making us think a lot more about betrayal, imagined and real.

Trouble is the resurrection of Caesar’s wife has also deepened the divide between the ruling party and the opposition over whether India should have a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the telecom spectrum scam or a Public Accounts Committee. The answer is neither.

India deserves a new body under the parliamentary system with real teeth that goes beyond looking at the books of the government, or making recommendations on policy changes, which may or may not be implemented. We need a body with powers in addition to having the ability to question both expenses and policy.

Take a look at the role of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Constitutionally, it’s meant to look at how the money granted by Parliament has been spent by the government, and also look at the government’s books based on reports submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. So it could be effective in examining whether losses or financial irregularities occurred, such as the one in the telecom scam. Well, almost. To start with, the loss that we are debating, of Rs 1.76 lakh crore, is estimated money that never came into the finance minister’s kitty because of a policy that seems to have been shortsighted and some argue, subverted. But the PAC doesn’t really look at policy in that light, only examines if it was followed.

So move over PAC, let’s push the Joint Parliamentary Committee under the lens. This one is a bit more special, like a lavish wedding with such an endearing guest list, such delectable treats and such wide appeal, that historically, it happens only a few times each decade. Too many of these would kill the charm of these talked-about weddings. We’ve had only four such gigs in India — the Bofors scam, the stock market scam, irregularities in securities and banking transactions and pesticide residues affecting the safety of soft drinks. Unlike the plain vanilla PAC, the JPC can indeed look into policy irregularities. In fact, it can be constituted to look into just about anything, as long as the subject is worthy of such a detailed probe. Typically, it has always had compelling controversial appeal. So, it would only seem logical that the opposition is pressing for the big gig on the telecom spectrum scam.

Here is where the limitations come in. Neither the JPC nor the PAC have the power to do anything beyond table a report and persuade the government to act. The government no doubt will be asked, based on the findings and recommendations to act, but then the onus lies entirely with the government to do so, in a manner that would sit well with the committee. And any inability to act in keeping with the recommendations of any committee would only lead to more bitterness. In India, that means more parliament sessions wasted, and ultimately the demise of a scandal that needed a just probe and correction.

The need of the hour is a parliamentary body with some quasi-judicial powers. We should allow some members of the legal fraternity, such as retired Supreme Court judges, to be advisors to this committee, so that its semi-judicial ability or integrity is not called into question. The parliament should set parameters, a set of boxes, that when ticked will call for such a committee to take over and examine the issue without further debate or question. The finer points can always be debated on how we need to structure this and the extent of its powers, but it has to go beyond the merely persuasive.

We live in modern times and while Roman proverbs have some arcane appeal, they don’t really belong to this age.

(Anjana Menon is executive editor, NDTV Profit. Views expressed here are personal)