Enoughs enough

Given the impassioned case Congress veterans had made for the Public Accounts Committee as the appropriate site for an inquiry into telecom policy,the partys current exertions are more than just a bit disingenuous. Indeed,the UPA government was content to sacrifice the entire winter session of Parliament to resist the oppositions demand for a joint parliamentary committee after the CAGs findings on irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum. Whats the point,they asked,when Parliament has a ready mechanism in the form of the PAC? And to blunt further the oppositions case,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered to appear before the PAC,should that be required. Perhaps this shrill argument by the Congress to establish the PACs immense scope and powers in itself raised the profile of the committee more than its current chairperson,M.M. Joshi,would have otherwise managed. But this backdrop also casts in sharp relief the disingenuity of its current campaign against the PAC.

Ever since P.C. Chacko,of the Congress,took charge as chairperson of the JPC that the government eventually conceded,his attention has been focussed on the rush of 2G-related activity in the PAC. Stick to the CAG report,he messaged the PAC,and leave matters of telecom policy. Withdraw from the investigation suo motu,he carried on,before taking his case to the Lok Sabha speaker who sagely counselled cooperation between the two committees. Joshis PAC meanwhile remained unruffled and continued to summon enough senior bureaucrats and business leaders to further raise the profile of its proceedings. And on Friday,the Congresss battle to limit the PACs turf was finally taken within. Before the committee could take up its appointment with the CBI director and the Union law secretary,Congress and DMK members on the PAC questioned the need to examine the 2G issue as it was now being looked into by the JPC. Later in the day the Congress spokesperson referred to a clash of jurisdiction between the two committees.

This political campaign to undermine the PAC is,of course,tiresome after all,what harm can be done by different committees getting on with their tasks? It is clear that the Congress is keen to limit the political afterglow of the 2G issue. And as a political party,it has a legitimate right to plead its case. What is extremely dangerous,however,is the institutional damage that is being sought to be wreaked on the PAC in the process. The PAC is a key mechanism for the assertion of the legislatures check on the executive and by weakening it for limited political gains,the Congress undermines Parliament.