Pointless turf war

After an entire session of Parliament had to be abandoned over the importance and otherwise of constituting a joint parliamentary committee JPC to probe the 2G spectrum allocation,now much energy is being unnecessarily expended on the need for an inquiry by the public accounts committee PAC into the same issue. The standout element is this: in the earlier JPC vs PAC debate,the Congress had extolled the virtues of a PAC inquiry and was convinced that it was the appropriate body to look into the issue,so much so that even the prime minister went out of his way to offer to appear before it. In the current JPC versus PAC debate,the Congresss P.C. Chacko,who heads the newly constituted JPC,says the PAC has a limited domain and should therefore withdraw suo motu from the spectrum investigation,leaving it to what he says is the more powerful JPC.

While the PACs M.M. Joshi is going ahead with its investigation with unconcealed zeal and summoning people,it does the JPC no good if Chacko keeps harping on the parallel probe by the PAC instead of getting on with his own job at hand. There are,more importantly,two elements to this debate that Chacko seems to be taking rather lightly. One,the PAC is evidence of the executives administrative accountability to the legislature,one of the fundamentals of parliamentary democracy. Can it really be wished away or simply asked to withdraw from a subject,as Chacko is demanding? Two,while the petty political one-upmanship is part of the territory,with the Congresss Chacko trying to trounce the BJPs Joshi,this turf war is pointless.

What would be beneficial,however,is a proper debate on the role and uses of a JPC,and here the BJP too needs to show more seriousness. There is a sense that the JPC on telecom policies from 1998 to 2009 is the result of political brinkmanship,with the opposition privileging their demand even if it meant sacrificing the winter sessions legislative business. Now that it has been constituted,MPs should show the requisite good faith by deliberating on its functioning.