New Delhi:
The spectrum scam forced severe battelines between India's politicians, allowing the Opposition to target the government over what it describes as "eyes wide shut" corruption.
Now, as Parliament gets ready to study the scam, new divisions are showing on the political landscape, mainly because two parliamentary panels are meant to look at what transpired in India's biggest swindle. Competitive showdown alert.
The Parliamentary Accounts Committee or PAC is headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi. It has been meeting with officials from the CBI who are investigating the criminal aspect of the scam, as well as bureaucrats. Technically, Mr Joshi's panel is meant to base its work on the report by the government's auditor which was tabled in parliament in November. Its volcanic disruptions included putting a price tag of 1.76 lakh crores on the 2G scam and blaming A Raja for giving away valuable spectrum at throwaway prices in 2008 when he was Telecom Minister.
However, at the Opposition's insistence, the government also agreed to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). Made up of 30 MPs from different parties, this panel is headed by PC Chacko, a senior Congress leader from Kerala and four-time Lok Sabha member. It will look into issues of governance and accountability - basically, it will provide a political inquest of why Mr Raja was able to allegedly collude with companies in heavily lopsided agreements over a national resource.
Before the government sanctioned the Joint Parliamentary Committee (there have been only four so far in India's history), the Prime Minister had offered to appear before Mr Joshi's panel. Mr Joshi has not rejected that offer, stating simply that it will be considered at a later point.
That's a bone of contention for Mr Chacko, who warns the Public Accounts Committee needs to stick to its brief. "Not only summoning the Prime Minister, but a roving enquiry by the PAC may not be necessary at this stage," he said. "And since a JPC has been constituted, I hope that in the coming days, the PAC will confine their enquiry to the limited subject of the CAG report."
Mr Chacko points out that when the government had argued that the Public Accounts Committee was investigating the scam and therefore a new panel was not required, the Opposition had insisted that its mandate was not wide enough to conduct a thorough inquiry. Now, he implies, it's upto the Opposition to reign in Mr Joshi and his team. "The PM had volunteered to appear before the PAC. At that time, several opposition leaders, both in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha said that the scope of the PAC is limited. They said the PAC cannot go into the larger issue of policy....Now once a JPC has been constituted, another Parliamentary committee need not go into the wider issue of policy implementation and its shortcomings. The PAC need not do that," he said.
The committee headed by Mr Chacko meets for the first time on the 24th of this month. It's meant to present its report before the monsoon session of Parliament ends. The term of Mr Joshi's committee expires at the end of April.
Now, as Parliament gets ready to study the scam, new divisions are showing on the political landscape, mainly because two parliamentary panels are meant to look at what transpired in India's biggest swindle. Competitive showdown alert.
The Parliamentary Accounts Committee or PAC is headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi. It has been meeting with officials from the CBI who are investigating the criminal aspect of the scam, as well as bureaucrats. Technically, Mr Joshi's panel is meant to base its work on the report by the government's auditor which was tabled in parliament in November. Its volcanic disruptions included putting a price tag of 1.76 lakh crores on the 2G scam and blaming A Raja for giving away valuable spectrum at throwaway prices in 2008 when he was Telecom Minister.
However, at the Opposition's insistence, the government also agreed to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). Made up of 30 MPs from different parties, this panel is headed by PC Chacko, a senior Congress leader from Kerala and four-time Lok Sabha member. It will look into issues of governance and accountability - basically, it will provide a political inquest of why Mr Raja was able to allegedly collude with companies in heavily lopsided agreements over a national resource.
Before the government sanctioned the Joint Parliamentary Committee (there have been only four so far in India's history), the Prime Minister had offered to appear before Mr Joshi's panel. Mr Joshi has not rejected that offer, stating simply that it will be considered at a later point.
That's a bone of contention for Mr Chacko, who warns the Public Accounts Committee needs to stick to its brief. "Not only summoning the Prime Minister, but a roving enquiry by the PAC may not be necessary at this stage," he said. "And since a JPC has been constituted, I hope that in the coming days, the PAC will confine their enquiry to the limited subject of the CAG report."
Mr Chacko points out that when the government had argued that the Public Accounts Committee was investigating the scam and therefore a new panel was not required, the Opposition had insisted that its mandate was not wide enough to conduct a thorough inquiry. Now, he implies, it's upto the Opposition to reign in Mr Joshi and his team. "The PM had volunteered to appear before the PAC. At that time, several opposition leaders, both in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha said that the scope of the PAC is limited. They said the PAC cannot go into the larger issue of policy....Now once a JPC has been constituted, another Parliamentary committee need not go into the wider issue of policy implementation and its shortcomings. The PAC need not do that," he said.
The committee headed by Mr Chacko meets for the first time on the 24th of this month. It's meant to present its report before the monsoon session of Parliament ends. The term of Mr Joshi's committee expires at the end of April.
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