PAC or JPC debate a red herring

Prime minister Manmohan Singh seems to have succeeded in creating a red herring when he had offered to appear before the Public Accounts Commitee (PAC), which is examining the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the 2G spectrum scam. Singh followed this up by reiterating his offer in a letter to PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi.

This has apparently rattled the main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and in the process revealed the inner fissures within the BJP.

Murli Manohar Joshi, a senior BJP leader who is now a marginal player within the party, has sowed confusion by refusing to reject Singh’s offer by saying that the issue will be decided at the appropriate time.

Countering this as it were, Sushma Swaraj, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and a senior BJP leader, tweeted that the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) remains and that the PAC’s ambit is a limited one. The Congress seemed to be quite happy with the apparent division in the BJP as revealed by the statements of Joshi and Swaraj. This is not to deny that there is internal bickering amongst the top leaders of the BJP. It is much too obvious, and the BJP cannot hide the fact either. But the dvisions in the BJP cannot serve as a smokescreen for the Congress.

The UPA government and the Congress cannot hope to get away in what they believe to be are the conflicting claims for a PAC or a JPC. The 2G spectrum scam cannot be buried in political cacophony. It is a humoungous scandal and people want to get to the bottom of it. The opposition parties are pressing for it because they have sensed the popular mood. Singh and the party should not congratulate themselves that they have created enough confusion in the opposition ranks.

The people will punish the Congress at the time of the next election, whether it be mid term or at the end of the five-year term. It does not matter whether it be a PAC or a JPC as long as details of the murky deals that underpinned 2G spectrum allocation is brought to light. All the clever people in the government and in Congress cannot succeed in diverting public attention from what is a truly venal deal-making that robs the exchequer and cheats the people of this country.