Accusing PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi for having “malafide intention” to destabilise the government by unilaterally drafting the committee’s report on 2G scam, Congress and DMK members on the panel on Wednesday demanded the BJP leader’s resignation. As soon as the draft report was circulated among the members in
the morning and was leaked to media, PAC members belonging to the Congress and DMK went into a huddle to firm up their response. Speaking to the media later in the evening, the members threatened that if their views were not taken into consideration, “they would not allow the committee to adopt the report in its scheduled meeting on Thursday”.
Complaining that they were given very little time to study the voluminous report of 280-odd pages and form their views, they accused that just a cursory look at the report revealed mentions of such deposition, which never took place. They also argued that given the complexity of the issue, more key witnesses like former telecom minister A. Raja should be summoned to depose before the committee to arrive at a rightful conclusion. Attributing political motive behind “hurriedly” pushing through the draft report Congress members K.S. Rao, Saifuddin Soz and Navin Jindal and DMK member T. Siva attacked the PAC chief and asked him to resign from the post.
Alleging that Dr Joshi had wanted to “destabilise” and “defame the cabinet and government,” Mr Rao said the draft report seems to have been prepared in a “pre-determined manner with biased mind and malafide intention”.
Apprehending that Dr Joshi might table the report in Parliament without views of members of the ruling party, the Congress MP demanded resignation of Dr Joshi as head of the PAC.
Mr Rao also contended that Dr Joshi had throughout the meetings forced the witnesses to toe a particular line and even “put words” in their mouth. He, however, said, “We all are for unanimous report. But why is he in a hurry? What is the intention? Do we have to say everything that the chairman says?”
Mr Jindal alleged several things mentioned in report are wrong and they would raise these issues one by one in the Thursday meeting. The meeting on April 16 did not take place and so principal secretary to Prime Minister T.K.A. Nair and Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekar could not appear but the report states that they had appeared, Mr Jindal said, adding that it suggests that the report has been prepared before April 15. The Congress and DMK members said they had wanted Mr Raja to appear before the committee as per the principle of natural justice as he was the main accused but the chairman rejected it.