New Delhi:
Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi will submit a copy of the controversial 2G report to Speaker Meira Kumar today.
The report has led to a fresh round of hostilities between the Congress and Opposition, with the UPA accusing Murli Manohar Joshi of a premeditated agenda.
Senior Congress leader and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has said PAC chief Murli Manohar Joshi's report on the 2G scam needs to be thrown into the dustbin.
He said Joshi has tried to undermine parliamentary democracy by putting up a report that was not discussed, accepted or passed by the members of the panel.
Sources say that the Speaker may ask Mr Joshi to clarify if the PAC has adopted the report and that he might have to leave the report to the new PAC panel which takes over from May 1. Mr Joshi is meant to Chair the new committee as well.
As Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Mr Joshi drafted a report on the telecom scam and faulted, among others, the Prime Minister, his office, and Mr P Chidambaram who was Finance Minister in 2008 when the scam was executed, allegedly by A Raja as Telecom Minister. Mr Raja is now in jail for servicing companies who allegedly bribed him handsomely for licenses and spectrum at clearance prices.
At a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, 11 of the 21 members, most of them from the Congress and DMK, voted against Mr Joshi's report. Mr Joshi, who is one of the Opposition BJP's most senior leaders, stormed out of the meeting. He says he had adjourned the meeting before the vote took place - so the report has not been rejected. The government believes that it has. (
Read: Murli Manohar Joshi walks out, 2G report defeated by one vote)
on Friday, Mr Chidambaram accused Mr Joshi of "gross distortion" in the section that dissects Mr Chidambaram's role. "Even a person of average intelligence," Mr Chidambaram charged, should be able to spot what Mr Joshi has incorrectly stated. (
Read: Chidambaram takes on MM Joshi)