Jaswant defies BJP again

A defiant Jaswant Singh held his first meeting on Monday as chairman of the public accounts committee (PAC) of parliament, despite the BJP's public appeal to relinquish the post. Obviously, none of the three BJP members on the committee, Shanta Kumar, Yashwant Sinha and Gopinath Munde, attended it.

PAC is one of the most important parliament panels and has 15 members from Lok Sabha and seven from Rajya Sabha, with the chairman's post reserved for a member of the main opposition party.

Jaswant's name was proposed in the last session of parliament, much before the Jinnah controversy and his subsequent ouster from the BJP.  While Munde, who was in Maharashtra, and Sinha, who was in Jharkhand, skipped the meeting citing political engagements, Shanta Kumar, who was very much in Delhi, said he had "other important work as well".

Earlier in the day, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said, "I have requested him (Jaswant) personally and want to make my request to him to step down public now. We had a long association which is why I went to make a personal appeal to him. Now, I feel he must understand the sentiment behind appointing an opposition member as chairman of PAC."

Swaraj dubbed Jaswant's contention, that he was appointed PAC chairman by the Speaker and hence, would resign only when the Speaker asks him to, erroneous.