Fresh PAC report, Joshi biased, says Congress

The Congress on Sunday slammed public accounts committee (PAC) chairman Murli Manohar Joshi, demanding his ouster after he circulated a reworked report on the 2G spectrum scam, signalling a fresh bout of confrontation with the BJP. HT reports.

The Congress on Sunday slammed public accounts committee (PAC) chairman Murli Manohar Joshi, demanding his ouster after he circulated a reworked report on the 2G spectrum scam, signalling a fresh bout of confrontation with the BJP.

The reworked report, released on Saturday, questions the role of the prime minister’s office and then finance minister P Chidambaram in the scandal related to sale of second-generation (2G) mobile spectrum licences, a PAC member said.

Chidambaram had clarified that his views on spectrum sale as finance minister were consistent with rules.

On June 28, Joshi’s attempt to place the report was foiled by Congress MPs. It prompted Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, to whom the audit was submitted, to call for a new one.

It was decided that constitutional experts would be consulted in drafting a fresh report. Kumar had to return the report to Joshi on the grounds that the PAC, whose term had ended on April 30, did not endorse the report unanimously.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused Joshi of making the committee “political, partisan and motivated”.

In a letter to PAC members, Joshi said he had consulted experts, looked into precedents and referred to rulebooks and believed that the draft report was the “unfinished agenda of the previous PAC”.

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