PAC: BJP-Cong fight over defence panel chair

While BJP members insisted that being the largest party, and also as per precedent, it was their “right” to head the crucial sub-committee, PAC chairman K V Thomas of the Congress asserted it was his prerogative to decide heads of each sub-committee.

SPARKS FLEW between BJP and Congress members at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Tuesday over the constitution of the sub-committee on defence, which will examine CAG reports on irregularities in several defence deals, including AgustaWestland.

While BJP members insisted that being the largest party, and also as per precedent, it was their “right” to head the crucial sub-committee, PAC chairman K V Thomas of the Congress asserted it was his prerogative to decide heads of each sub-committee.

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As the meeting began, four BJP members — Nisihikant Dubey, Anurag Thakur, Janardan Sigriwal and Abhishek Singh — flagged their opposition to Thomas’s decision to appoint Congress member Shantaram Naik as convener of the defence sub-panel. Insisting on precedence, Dubey said in all likelihood no report will be submitted with Naik as chairman. He recalled that Naik had headed the sub-committee on Commonwealth Games in the previous PAC and no report could be submitted on it. Dubey said the BJP members will approach Speaker Sumitra Mahajan if Thomas does not reconsider his decision.

Thomas, however, stuck to his decision and cited procedures issued by Lok Sabha Secretariat to assert that it is for the chairman to take a decision. Naresh Agrawal (SP) backed Thomas and said the chairman has the prerogative to appoint heads of sub-committees, while Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of TMC was guarded, saying precedent should be honoured.

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