The UPA-sponsored lunch with leaders of Opposition parties on the nature of the probe into 2G spectrum allocations ended in a huge hiccup on Monday afternoon with the Opposition still stubborn on an investigation conducted by a joint parliamentary committee (JPC). The government's side,led by Union Finance Minister and Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee,proposed a multi-disciplinary probe into the 2G case alongside a review by the Public Accounts Committee. The Opposition,however,insisted on a JPC and rejected the government's proposal for attaching multi-disciplinary probe teams with the PAC to look into the CAG report. After the hour-long meeting,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had called leaders of all parties to discuss ways to end the logjam over the 2G probe because of which Parliament has remained paralysed ever since the winter session began on November 9. During the meeting,the government proposed that the teams of multiple agencies probing the 2G scam could be attached with the Public Accounts Committee,Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said. This was rejected by the Opposition parties in unison as they stuck to their demand for JPC,she said. "We said that we will not accept (the government proposal)," Swaraj said,a view echoed by representatives of other Opposition parties who attended the meeting. The meeting ended,as the first one had last Tuesday,with Mukherjee promising to get back after consulting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Monday's lunch diplomacy was decided at a meeting by the Congress core committee on Sunday. Among those who attended it were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,Congress chief Sonia Gandhi,Home Minister P Chidambaram,Defence Minister A K Antony and Mukherjee. The lunch is at 1 pm. Last Tuesday too,Mukherjee had offered lunch for a solution to leaders of all parties but failed to come up with anything on how to end the daily stalemate at Parliament on the nature of the probe in the 2G spectrum scam.
