Joshi-led PAC gives govt a clean chit

Even as the Opposition BJP continues to blame senior ministers of the UPA government for the dubious spectrum allocation, party veteran Murli Manohar Joshi, who heads a parliamentary panel probing the multi-crore 2G scam, has given a clean chit to the Congress-led Manmohan Singh regime. It did not seek to hide any document from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of which he is the chairperson, the 77-year-old MP said on Monday.

Nonetheless, the PAC, at its next meeting, is planning to take up the controversial note the finance ministry sent to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on March 25 this year. (The note says P Chidambaram, as finance minister in 2008 when the 2G spectrum was allocated, could have insisted on auction, [thus averted a huge loss the exchequer].) “Once we take up the document for discussion, we will start calling people, including Chidambaram,” he told reporters here.

Usually, ministers don’t usually depose before the PAC. Parliamentary convention permits it to summon only officials. Joshi said the PAC had written two letters to the government, asking for documents from the departments of economic affairs and Telecom besides the PMO.

“The letters were written by the PAC on March 8 and 24, while the note from the finance ministry to the PMO was sent on March 25. So, I don’t think the government was hiding documents from the committee. We have not asked for the document,” Joshi added.

The BJP leader targeted finance minister Pranab Mukherjee for “changing” his stand on the note prepared by various departments of the government, and blamed the Congress high command for “pressuring” him to change his statement.

“Mukherjee has said he doesn’t agree with the inference made on the note. I want to ask him which paragraph he disagrees with, because it’s a non-political document prepared by bureaucrats,” he said.

“The document contains facts that we have been raised for a long time. Who is Mukherjee trying to protect?”

Reiterating the BJP’s demand, Joshi said the government must immediately remove Chidambaram from the Cabinet, and start a probe into his “role” in the scam.