Govt under intense pressure, may order JPC probe

The government could order a JPC probe into 2G spectrum scam as it came under intense pressure today with the Opposition refusing to accept anything less than such a probe and some UPA allies making it clear that they were not averse to the move.

At an all-party meeting called by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to end the deadlock in Parliament, the opposition unitedly pressed for JPC and rejected government's proposal for attaching a five-member multi-disciplinary probe team with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to go into CAG report.

Even key allies of the UPA -- Trinamool Congress and DMK, whose leader A Raja was forced to resign as Telecom Minister -- seemed to be not averse to the JPC as they said the government had the responsibility of running Parliament, even if it meant by accepting the opposition demand.

The only issue on which there were differences during the meeting was on the period to be covered by the JPC.

There was one view of DMK that JPC should investigate the telecom tenders issued from 1998 but AIADMK said it should be from 1994 onwards as the sector was privatised in that year.

As the hour-long meeting remained deadlocked, Mukherjee told the opposition parties that he would get back to them after consulting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Later, senior government sources dropped enough hints that the demand for JPC could be considered. They said that JPC is always agreed to "reluctantly" and even when accepted, it "does not mean defeat" of the government.

"We have to see that the Parliament runs," a source said.

Even at the meeting, Mukherjee told the leaders of various parties that "though the government was not convinced about the need for a JPC probe, if at all it agrees, it would only give-in to the opposition demand."

Catching on this, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said that whoever (whichever government) has in the past accepted a JPC has only "given-in" to the demand. "Why don't you give up and give-in to our demand," she told Mukherjee.

He laughed it off saying that since Swaraj was a lawyer, she had caught him.

Mukherjee had called the leaders of parties to discuss ways to end the logjam over 2G probe because of which Parliament has remained paralysed ever since the Winter Session was convened on November 9 as the Opposition has been insisting on setting up of JPC to go into the scam.