Jaswant Singh resigns as PAC chairman

After his expulsion from BJP,Jaswant Singh was asked by the party to vacate from the post of Public Accounts Committee chairman.

In a sudden development,Jaswant Singh has resigned as Chairman of the prestigious Public Accounts Committee (PAC),which he had refused to quit when he had a bitter parting of ways with the BJP four months ago.

His resignation raised questions whether there was any rapprochement with the BJP but the 71-year-old leader ruled out any such possibility saying his action was not under “any pressure” or done with “some calculation”. The former Union Minister had met Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Monday and submitted his resignation,which has been accepted with effect from December 31,to enable him complete three reports.

His tenure as PAC Chairman ends in March next.

“I wanted to establish a point,which has got established,which is the primacy of autonomy of functioning of Parliamentary Committees,” said Singh,who was appointed as PAC Chairman on August 6.

He was expelled from the party on August 19 for writing a book — ‘Jinnah — India,Partition,Independence’ in which he had eulogised the Pakistan founder M A Jinnah and denigrated Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel.

Soon after his expulsion,the BJP had demanded that Singh should quit the PAC Chairman’s post as he had been nominated by the party to which he no longer belonged.

Senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and S S Ahluwalia,in fact,had met him on behalf of the party with a plea that he should quit as there was no provision for his removal.

Singh had refused to resign and the Speaker had also maintained that there was no provision to remove PAC Chairman unless he did on his own or was incapacitated.

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The resignation raised eyebrows against the backdrop of Singh addressing L K Advani in Lok Sabha on Monday with regard to Gorkhaland issue and the Leader of Opposition responding to him as “my colleague”.

“I am surprised and saddened that you see some calculation. There is life beyond calculation even in politics. I did not calculate any advantage on Gorkhaland issue,” he said in reply to questions whether the step was taken in the context of the exchange between him and Advani.

He said he believed that it was incorrect for political parties to ask Chairmen of committees to vacate their seats.

“This too is an encroachment on propriety and prerogative of Parliament and its committees as tomorrow parties would say “write this in the report or don’t write this”.

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Singh said he was not a permanent denizen of this committee. He had enough political experience and continuing in office was not his over-riding concern,he said.