NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES US ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The Congress on Wednesday said the government's refusal to make available crucial documents pertaining to defence purchases to the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee was unacceptable.
Contending that the Ministry of Defence had refused to make the documents available to the PAC, party spokesman S Jaipal Reddy said: "This, in our view, is highly unacceptable. There is a perceptible trend in all this. It is of a piece with Tehelka and coffingate."
Reddy recalled that issues relating to defence purchases since 1989 were referred to the chief vigilance commissioner as part of Defence Minister George Fernandes's ostensible transparency policy.
"The story has now turned a full circle, from unilateral transparency to blanket stonewalling," the spokesman said. "It shows that the defence ministry has a lot to hide from the PAC, which is the ultimate authority under the Constitution to look into all such cases," he added.
Fernandes, according to reports, had on Tuesday refused to hand over documents relating to recent defence purchases to the PAC.
"The blatant suppression of relevant material is a stinking scandal in itself. We, therefore, demand that the MoD review its utterly untenable position and make available the entire report of the Central Vigilance Commission to the PAC," Reddy said.
Contending that the "PAC has a right to protest to the government", Reddy said: "The government's stand is against the interests of the country's security."
Asked what the PAC could do now, he said it could go to Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balyogi.
When told that the PAC was merely a recommendatory body, Reddy contended: "Nothing is binding on the government. Everything is recommendatory, but what the government cannot do is to withhold material."
When told that earlier he had described the MoD as a "leaking defence ministry", Reddy quipped: "Leaking and cover-up are two sides of the same coin."
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