Pranab to table Phukan report

Fernandes said he has been called a ‘‘thief,’’ a ‘‘robber.’’ ‘‘I know what is there in the CVC report,’’ adding ‘‘you also do.’’ He created a flutter in the treasury benches by remarking that the controversy was being raised by those who ‘‘do not know what is national security’’.

Most ruling UPA members, including Water Resources Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi and Minister of State for Agriculture Kanti Lal Bhuria, stood up in protest. Others like RJD member Ram Kripal Yadav, Congress members Rajesh Mishra and Tejaswini, walked up to the Well, flashing copies of a news report. NDA members followed suit and sloganeering began from both sides.

The Speaker chided Bhuria when BJP leaders Ananth Kumar and V.K. Malhotra pointed out that he was instigating members. ‘‘You are a minister, at least you should sit down,’’ he told Bhuria.

Mukherjee said an impression has been created that some kind of ‘‘clean chit’’ has been given in the first affidavit and that there was a ‘‘U-turn’’ in the second. He said a clear reading of the affidavit filed on March 10 will amply bear out that no ‘‘clean chit’’ has been given to anyone. ‘‘While, the first affidavit explains the procedure of procurement.. the second charts out the future course of action contemplated by the government,’’ he said.

In the Rajya Sabha, Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj assured the elders that the Phukan report will be tabled as soon as the ‘‘Action-taken Report (ATR)’’ was ready. Following a pointed directive from Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat that he was bound by parliamentary rules to table the report within six months of its submission to the government, Bhardwaj stood up to say, ‘‘Two ministries are involved, we are working on the ATR. We are not running away.’’

Later, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said: ‘‘It is not even an interim report, it is Part-I of a three-part report…But the Speaker asked us and the Opposition wants it, so we will table the report by the end of the session.’’

Demanding a detailed discussion, Jaswant Singh said, ‘‘We want that the issue of Defence procurement should be very transparent..’’

And as this war of words continued, CPI(M) members Nilotpal Basu and Dipankar Mukherjee interrupted repeatedly, accusing the BJP of double-standards for having denied the Public Accounts Committee access to the CVC report during their tenure and now asking the same to be tabled.