2G: BJP braves Murli Manohar Joshi to clamour for JPC

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued to press for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scam despite its senior leader and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Murli Manohar Joshi somewhat queering the pitch by appearing pro-active about the role of the house panel much to the delight of the ruling Congress.

While the Congress says the house panel (PAC) is eligible enough to probe the CAG report on the 2G scam, the BJP stuck to its demand for a JPC.

“The Prime Minister has volunteered to make a precedent (by appearing before the PAC), we ask him to follow the precedent, and there is a precedent of JPC,” said BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy sarcastically.

He said the “PAC chairman (Joshi) is doing what he is supposed to do, but we stick to our demand of JPC”.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj also strongly argued for a JPC.

Swaraj tweeted:” The scope of PAC is totally different from that of JPC. While PAC deals with accounts, JPC deals with accountability and governance.”

“Under the Lok Sabha Rules, PAC cannot call a Minister, much less the Prime Minister. Prime Minister’s offer therfore, has no meaning,” she said over Twitter.

The BJP leadership is apprehensive, however, over the stance of Murli Manohan Joshi, its senior member and chairman of PAC.

“PAC is not just about numbers crunching. We can call other agencies too to get to the bottom of 2G mess,” Joshi told reporters.

Joshi has also suggested extending the period of the probe to the pre-2004 National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule.