PAC: DMK,Cong differ on draft 2G report

Members belonging to the BJP,Left parties,DMK and BSP wanted the draft report circulated and considered.

Members belonging to the DMK and BSP distanced themselves from the Congress as PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi took up the 2G spectrum scam probe issue at the panel meeting on Tuesday.

Since members have expressed divergent opinions,I have told the members that I would consult constitutional experts and study rules,procedures and precedents to determine the status of the report, Joshi said after the meeting.

Sources said the Congress members contended that there was no point taking up the draft report which was rejected by a majority in the previous PAC and when the issue was being looked into by a Joint Parliamentary Committee JPC.

Members belonging to the BJP,Left parties,DMK and BSP wanted the draft report circulated and considered.

DMK representative Adhi Sanker demanded that former minister A Raja be examined besides some other important witnesses. To this,Joshi responded by saying that he had no problem with this and if members so desired,the committee could send for more witnesses. The sources said another person whose name had cropped up on this count was former law secretary T K Viswanathan,presently secretary-general of the Lok Sabha.

BSP member Satish Chandra Mishra,according to the sources,said he was new to the committee and he needed to study the report. The opinions of both the DMK and SP,in effect,meant that the draft report was not dead as the Congress maintained.

Both the DMK and BSP had gone along with the Congress contingent earlier to reject the draft report when Joshi took the stand that it had been carried through.

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The DMK,with party leaders Kanimozhi and Raja in the jail,obviously has no stake in siding with the Congress now.

For the BSP,it was a pay-back time after having been the target of constant Congress attack over a variety of issues,including land acquisition,law and order and cases of rape in UP.

Joshi,the sources said,tabled the draft report along with the communication received from Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. The letter,he pointed out,had stated that the Speaker was returning the draft report because it had not been read and adopted in accordance with rules and procedures laid. As the report had been only returned,the natural interpretation was that it had to be adopted according to the procedure prescribed.