Congress, BJP spar on heading PAC defence panel

The sub-committee is expected to examine several controversial defence deals, including the Agusta Westland chopper scam.

3 min readNew DelhiJul 12, 2016 02:31 AM IST First published on: Jul 12, 2016 at 02:31 AM IST

TUSSLE IS brewing between the BJP and Congress in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the issue of constitution of the crucial sub-committee on defence. The sub-committee is expected to examine several controversial defence deals, including the Agusta Westland chopper scam.

While senior Congress leader K V Thomas, who heads PAC, constituted all five sub-committees for PAC on July 8, making Congress member Shantaram Naik the convener of the sub-panel on defence, BJP members, who were insisting on a lead role in that particular committee, have decided to approach Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan against the decision when the Monsoon Session begins on July 18.

The members got intimation from the Lok Sabha Secretariat about the setting up of the sub-committee on Monday.

While Thomas insists it is the chairman’s prerogative to appoint heads of the sub-committees, BJP members argue that there has been precedent that the subcommittee on defence in PAC was headed by the ruling party member, as the PAC chairman belongs to the main Opposition party.

[related-post]

Watch Video: What’s making news

There is a possibility that the matter can be raised even in Tuesday’s meeting of the PAC.

BJP members believe the Congress wants a party leader to head the defence sub-committee since the panel will examine “contentious” cases — from Bofors to AgustaWestland. One BJP member alleged that the Congress wants to “save its skin” and hence does not want the ruling party to head the sub-committee.

In the first meeting of the newly constituted PAC on May 18, BJP members had demanded that that the parliamentary audit watchdog should take up the issue of the VVIP chopper scam.

PAC chairman Thomas said he is ready for PAC to discuss the AgustaWestland issue but does not agree with the insistence of BJP members that the sub-committee on defence has to be headed by them. “Constituting sub-committees is the prerogative of the PAC chairman. There will be five subcommittees in the panel, of which the BJP will head the two, the Congress one and other parties two,” Thomas told The Indian Express.

Nishikant Dubey, a BJP member in the panel, however, said: “There has been a precedent that the sub-committee on defence has been chaired by ruling party members, since the PAC chairman belongs to the main Opposition party,” he said. “When Murli Manohar Joshi was chairman of PAC during the UPA rule, Congress MPs Girija Vyas and Abhijit Mukherjee were made convenor of the sub-committee on defence twice each, between 2010 and 2014.

“Even in the last PAC headed by Thomas, the sub-committee on defence was headed by BJP MP S S Ahluwalia twice in 2014-15 and 2015-16. So what is the problem in giving this sub-committee to the BJP now?”

Thomas said there is no precedent as such, and he appointed Ahluwalia purely on discussion.