Was the prime minister's offer to appear before the Public Accounts Committee 'precedent' an afterthought?
Looks like it, if one were to go carefully through the press handout being distributed at the media centre at the Congress plenary in New Delhi.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today seems to have taken the sting out of the opposition charge that the Congress party opposed formation of a joint parliamentary committee to probe the 2G scam because it was scared that the JPC would call Dr Singh for questioning in the probe.
Speaking on the concluding day of the Congress Plenary at Burari on the outskirts of the national capital, the PM said that he shall be happy to appear before the PAC and intends to write a letter to the chairman of the PAC that is already examining the 2G scam and presided over by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dr Murli Manohar Joshi.
However, this mentions finds itself as an addendum to the 'Prime minister's remark at the AICC session'.
The main copy of this press note in point number 7 that touches upon 2G spectrum scam fails to aver what Dr Singh spoke in public.
Interestingly, what surprised many was Dr Singh's statement that the concerned minister resigned from his post "as soon as the CAG report (indicting telecom minister A Raja) was received.
All those who keenly followed the 2G spectrum scam will certainly consider this as an incorrect fact. Raja resigned several days after the CAG report was released.
The concluding line of the PM's statement in the addendum says that: I sincerely believe that like Ceasar's wife, the prime minister should be above suspicion and it is for this reason that I am prepared to appear before the PAC even though there is no precedent to that effect."
