What will happen to the PAC report now?

Thanks to an over-enthusiastic Murli Manohar Joshi, whose anti-Congress leanings became a little too obvious, the Congress with a little help from friendly parties has scuttled the report of the Public Accounts Committee on the 2G spectrum scam. This has made sure that it cannot be tabled in Parliament, even though it has been leaked through the media.

The PAC meeting witnessed some ugly scenes, when Congress members, along with the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam went prepared to confront Joshi on how and when the PAC draft report was leaked, but instead of a discussion a slanging match ensued in the meeting. This led Joshi to adjourn the meeting and walking out of the meeting. The National Democratic Alliance members also followed suit.

Following this, Congress members along with two members from the DMK and one each from the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, totalling 11 members elected Saifuddin Soz as the chairman of the PAC for the day, and gave their rejection of the draft report which had been circulated by Joshi in writing.

According to experts, every report has to be adopted by a Parliamentary committee before it can be presented to Parliament. In the event of any contentious issues, the report has to be voted on by a majority of the members, otherwise it cannot be adopted.

In this case, the PAC was not able to adopt the report, since the chairman himself walked out. Along with that, a majority of the members rejected the report. The total number of members at the moment is 11.

This effectively brings to an end the 2G spectrum chapter as far as the PAC is concerned. It seems like it will not be able to take up the issue again. This leaves the field clear for the Congress-led Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the issue of the 2G spectrum scam.

The term of the present PAC ends on Friday. While Joshi will be chairman of the PAC for another one-year term, some of the members will be new and some old ones will continue.

Since the PAC is a continuous process, Joshi could have continued with the deliberations and given the report late. But his hurry led to a lot of anomalies appearing in the report which has led to the PAC being seen as a partisan body with a decided agenda to score points off the ruling United Progressive Alliance.

The biggest weapon that Joshi gave to the Congress was to include the so-called evidence of those who had not even appeared before the committee such as the cabinet secretary, the principal secretary to the prime minister, the attorney general etc. They were called but could not appear before the committee since the meetings were adjourned.

Joshi does not appear to have checked the report and has earned the charge of having outsourced the draft report, which he is finding difficult to answer.

On top of that, the congress and DMK members wanted former Telecom minister A Raja to be called before the committee, since he was the main player in the entire drama, and the members said they wanted to hear what he had to say. But Joshi disregarded that view.

Home minister P Chidambaram is affronted, since the draft report has made comments on him. But he in turn, claims that he was not called before the committee, neither was he sent any questionnaire.

It is interesting that ministers such as Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Pawan Bansal, and Narayanswamy were keeping a track of the developments in the PAC meeting when it was on in Parliament. They were also present on the premises.

While the Congress has fully backed its congress members justifying what they did, All India Congress Committee Media Chairman Janardan Dwivedi said it was wrong of Joshi to have a press conferences after every committee meeting, since the deliberations are never briefed to the media, as was happening.

The Congress members are writing to the Lok Sabha speaker to intervene and to institute an enquiry on how the report was leaked to the media.

Joshi's position in the committee would become difficult if he decides to stay on since a great deal of suspicion and distrust has been generated, making the political divide more than evident. It is not a tradition often seen in parliamentary committees.

It is interesting that Joshi, a Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh has been instrumental in bringing the SP and the BSP on the same platform as the Congress and in total opposition to the BJP, as far as the issue of the 2G scam is concerned.

This is politically significant, with the UP assembly elections just around the corner.