Congress seeks to corner Joshi

Parliament's re-constituted Public Accounts Committee (PAC) witnessed some stormy scenes at its first meeting today with Congress members seeking to corner chairman Murli Manohar Joshi on the 2G scam issue and the NDA members counselling restraint.

Parliament's re-constituted Public Accounts Committee (PAC) witnessed some stormy scenes at its first meeting today with Congress members seeking to corner Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi on the 2G scam issue and the NDA members counselling restraint.

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As soon as the meeting began, Congress members Jayanthi Natarajan and Girija Vyas wanted Joshi to clarify on the Committee's 'report' on the 2G spectrum scam issue and wanted to know the status of the "so called report".

At this point Anandrao Adsul (Shiv Sena), Naresh Gujral (JD-U) and Prakash Javadekar (BJP) contended that raising issues related to the 2G matter would only lead to bad blood and do no good to the Committee.

"Let bygones be bygones," was their refrain.

K Sudhakaran (Cong) said he had given a dissent note on the 2G scam matter and sought to know what was done with it.

Joshi told the Committee that the he had submitted to the 2G scam report to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar along with the dissent note of Sudhakaran.

B Mahtab (BJD) asked the members to make a new beginning and making allegations and countering the same would not help in the functioning of the Committee.

The chair also asked members to refrain from indulging in party politics in the Committee meetings.

After customary introduction of members, the Committee deliberated on issues to be taken up for examination during its tenure.

It is understood that the committee decided to take up matters related to defence, the Medical Council of India among others.