Joshi submitting report to Speaker is laughable: Cong

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Saturday said Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi had no right to submit the draft report on the 2G scam to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as it was 'rejected' by a majority of the committee's members.

"Who has given him the right (to submit the report to the Speaker)? I find it laughable... Dr Joshi has gone on to submit that report which has no value legally or according to parliamentary traditions," the Union minister and Congress MP from Chandigarh told mediapersons.

"I pity him... the report has been rejected. Even if it is assumed that it has not been rejected, the fact remains it has not been passed by the majority," he said.

Bansal said to call the findings of the PAC a 'report' was wrong and an "insult to democratic institutions".

"This is the most preposterous thing to say. Where is the report? A draft becomes a report when the majority adopts it," he said.

Unfazed by the 'rejection' of the draft report on the 2G scam, Joshi today submitted it to Lok Sabha Speaker on the last day of his term as head of the Committee.

The controversial draft report that was sharply critical of the Prime Minister, PMO and others was 'rejected' by the majority of members in the 21 member Committee on Thursday during a chaotic meeting.

While Joshi, who is a senior BJP leader, claimed that he had 'adjourned' the meeting, Congress members alleged that he had walked out after which they 'elected' Rajya Sabha MP Saifuddin Soz to chair the meeting which 'rejected' the report.

11 members belonging to Congress, DMK and one each from SP and BSP 'voted' against adoption of the report.

Rejecting Joshi's claim of having adjourned the meeting, Bansal said "he chose to create a scene" and had "walked out in a huff".

He said Soz's election was made under Rule 258 (3) that governs functioning of the PAC, according to which in the absence of the chairman, the members can choose another member to preside over that particular sitting.

"What is going through his (Joshi's) mind, what is the inspiration behind (the move)," Bansal said, alleging that there was infighting within the BJP and Joshi was trying to get political mileage.

"He is thinking 'I am finished (politically) and with this I may earn a place'," the minister said.

He alleged that there was a fight in the BJP for one-upmanship and "there is some ping pong ball game being played... everybody wants to upstage the other".

Asked if he had said that the PAC report should be thrown in the dustbin, Bansal said, "I said the place of this report is in the dustbin, since it has been rejected by the majority."

Bansal further said, "It is indeed very unfortunate that Joshi has chosen to act the way he did by going around accusing the Congress of being guilty of something."

"The BJP is out there to destabilise not only the government but the parliamentary system of governance as well. They want to create a situation where the government is not able to perform."

He alleged that it had become BJP's nature to fool and mislead people by repeatedly lying. It has been the saffron party's long pending desire to be able to come to power somehow and they have still not been able to reconcile to the fact of having lost power in 2004, he added.

Image: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal