2G: JPC chairman refers to LS Speaker demand to summon PC, rules out PM

JPC Chairman P C Chacko today decided to refer to the Lok Sabha Speaker the demand to summon Finance Minister P Chidambaram as a witness before the panel on 2G but virtually ruled out calling the Prime Minister even as BJP continued its boycott.

"According to past precedents and rules, members of a committee pass a unanimous resolution to call a minister. The request is then sent to the Speaker for a final ruling as rules do not permit calling a minister before a committee for either giving evidence or consultations.

But in this case, since there is no unanimity on calling the Finance Minister, I have decided to refer the matter to the Speaker which is allowed under rules...I will refer the matter of calling of a minister. There is no precedence to call the Prime Minister," Chacko said after today's meeting.

The decision was taken even as the six BJP members in the Joint Parliamentary Committee(JPC), who had been boycotting the meetings accusing Chacko of not taking a decision on their demand to call Singh and Chidambaram, today stayed away from the proceedings.

While BJP has been demanding calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram before JPC, Left members in the panel - Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) and Sitaram Yechury (CPM) - today made a strong pitch to call the Finance Minister.

In a strongly worded letter to Chacko today on behalf of his party colleagues, Yashwant Sinha of BJP said, "...we have strongly demanded that in order to arrive at the right conclusions, the Committee must record the evidence of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister. Their appearance before the Committee, in view of their role in the decision making process is absolutely necessary."

Responding to the letter, Chacko said except for BJP, no one else has demanded calling the prime minister as witness. "Even the CPI and CPM said they do not want to call the PM, but only the Finance Minister...BJP knows it is not in the rules to call PM...it is a political decision," he said.

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