Only JPC can ensure accountability, says Swaraj

The Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to be at variance with the stand taken by its leader and Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi when it said that only a JPC can ensure accountability and governance.

The party also made light of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's offer to appear before the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee in connection with the 2G scam probe. "(The) scope of PAC is totally different from that of JPC. While PAC deals with accounts, JPC deals with accountability and governance," Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj tweeted on Tuesday, a day after Joshi had said that the PAC can go beyond the CAG report on the 2G scam.

Joshi's remarks were seen as puncturing the clamour for a JPC probe into the issue with opposition parties insisting that the PAC's role is limited while the JPC can have far reaching powers. Swaraj also dismissed Singh's offer saying that the PAC cannot call even a minister, much less the prime minister. "Under the Lok Sabha Rules, the PAC cannot call a Minister, much less the Prime Minister. (The)

Prime Minister's offer therefore, has no meaning," she tweeted.

On the prime minister's offer, Joshi had yesterday said the PAC will take an "appropriate decision at an appropriate time" after going through rules and procedures and in accordance with them. Joshi had also said that while the PAC cannot summon a minister, this was a different case as the prime minister had made an offer. "This is not a case of summons," he added.

BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, who is a member of the PAC, refused to comment on the matter. "My lips are sealed. I will not comment. The party stand is clear," Sinha said. Congress leader Rajiv Shukla said the Congress was trying to suggest that the PAC was the most appropriate forum to deliberate on these issues. "What we are trying to suggest is that the PAC is the most appropriate forum, right forum to deliberate on these issues like the CAG report," he said. Shukla refused to comment on the tweets posted by Swaraj. "I am not concerned about what Sushma Swaraj has tweeted," Shukla said adding that the opposition should have faith in the PAC.