Meira reappoints Joshi PAC chief

[1]

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has renominated veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi the chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee. It has come against the backdrop of Dr Joshi’s draft report on the 2G spectrum scam which has hurt the Congress and the DMK combine.
As per the parliamentary norms and practice, the PAC chairmanship has always been given to the main Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The Congress and the DMK were against Dr Joshi getting a second term, but their opposition seems to have strengthened his case. This is because Dr Joshi’s report has given enough material for the opposition to fight the battle against corruption.
The PAC is one the key parliamentary committees and is responsible for conducting the financial audit of various departments and ministries.
The term of the previous committee had ended on Saturday. Dr Joshi’s reappointment will be effected from Sunday and he will be the chairperson for one year.
The 77-year-old leader has been at the centre of major controversy after he circulated the draft report of the PAC on the 2G scam.
He was attacked by the PAC members, belonging to the UPA, who alleged that the report was prepared with “malafide intention” to defame and destabilise the government.
The UPA members had created pandemonium at the last meeting of the previous committee of the PAC on April 28 which had resulted in a chaos.
Rejecting the charges of malafide, Dr Joshi had on Saturday sent the report to the Lok Sabha Speaker and wanted her to table it in Parliament.
Addressing the media, he had also termed as “unconstitutional” the claim that 11 MPs of the 21-member committee had “rejected” the report, saying such a possibility does not exist till the report is “read” by members and “discussed” para by para.
Replying to a question, Dr Joshi had said he will wait for a decision from the Lok Sabha Speaker on whether the report had been “adopted”.
Meanwhile, HRD minister Kapil Sibal has termed the draft PAC report on the 2G spectrum allocation as “not a report” because it has not been adopted by the parliamentary committee, but said it is for the Speaker to decide on the matter.
“The PAC chairman (Murli Manohar Joshi) himself said he had adjourned the meeting. So obviously for a report to be adopted, it has to be adopted either unanimously or by a majority. In any case it was not adopted by a majority, so there is no report,” Mr Sibal told Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate programme.
He was asked to comment on the status of the PAC report submitted by Dr Joshi to the Speaker.
“For it to be an official report it has to be adopted. So when did the adoption take place? Who adopted it? Was it done unanimously or by a majority? It is nobody’s case that this was done,” Mr Sibal said.
However, he made it clear that whatever decision the Speaker takes on the status of the PAC report would be acceptable to the government.
“Naturally the government has to accept... We are bound to. The Speaker is the Speaker,” he said, in reply to a question.
Mr Sibal denied that the government has now turned against Dr Joshi though it had praised the PAC and its chairperson while refusing to form a JPC on the 2G issue.
“The government has not turned against anybody. It is the members of the committee who have turned against Mr Joshi,” he said.
He described BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s charge that four ministers were directly coordinating with the Congress and DMK members in PAC as “absolutely absurd”.