PM Manmohan Singh’s PAC offer rips BJP apart

Joshi had seen better days,especially in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition,and was off the limelight till the PM deliberately pointed the spotlight at him,angering and dividing the BJP when the PAC chairman actually seemed likely to accept the offer.

To pre-empt any such possibility,Sushma Swaraj ramped up the BJP in-house tussle today with Joshi.

She wants to make sure Joshi’s willingness to consider PM Manmohan Singh’s offer to appear before him to clear up any 2G scam related querries favourably remains confined and stops short of actually accepting it.

However,the PM’s offer has given a new lease of political life to the almost-forgotten Joshi and the latter is in no mood to let it go,as can be seen from his insistence not to follow the BJP line.

To reinforce the BJP stand,Sushma Swaraj today sent yet another message to Joshi in public saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s offer was entirely meaningless.

She insisted that the JPC has a different scope.

But Joshi is still toeing his own line and made it very clear that his panel was independent enough to go into the 2G spectrum issue despite Swaraj contending that the PAC cannot even call a Minister.

“Under the Lok Sabha Rules,PAC cannot call a Minister,much less the Prime Minister. (The) Prime Minister’s offer therefore,has no meaning,” she tweeted.

Her comments come a day after Singh wrote to PAC chairman Joshi expressing his readiness to appear before the panel,which is probing the 2G Spectrum scam.

Joshi,has made things worse for BJP as he does not seem to be very enthusiastic about the campaign for a JPC.

Yesterday he said that the PAC will take an “appropriate decision at an appropriate time” on Singh’s offer after going through rules and procedures and in accordance with them.

Swaraj said the “scope of PAC is totally different from that of JPC. While PAC deals with accounts,JPC deals with accountability and governance.”

Under Speaker’s Direction 99 under the rules of procedures and conduct of business in Lok Sabha,the 22-member PAC cannot call a minister to give evidence or for consultations in connection with the examination of accounts by it.

The chairman of the committee,however,may have an informal talk with a minister on the subject under consideration by the committee.

Since the Prime Minister’s offer is unprecedented in its nature,the Speaker may have to devise a procedure on how the committee could accept it.