The day Public Accounts Committee chairman Dr Murli Manohar Joshi summoned the cabinet secretary and principal secretary to the prime minister to depose before the PAC probing the 2G scam, the MPs belonging to the ruling United Progressive Alliance had shouted down the move. It was a foretaste of things to come and had drawn the battle lines more sharply inside the PAC.
The Congress managed to win over the two Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party MPs to vote against the draft report circulated on Wednesday by Dr Joshi, and thereby ensured that the report in its present form will not be adopted. On Wednesday, the Congress managers were dispatched to 'persuade' the BSP and SP MPs to cast their lot with the UPA, which is what they did, taking the tally to 11 against the report and 10 for it.
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Saifuddin Soz to step into Joshi's shoes
Image: Saifuddin SozPhotographs: Reuters
While the ruling combine members managed successfully to abort the PAC report, at least for the time being, the damage has been done at the wider level. Joshi's circulation of the report to members on Wednesday, and its leak to the media, made sure that its contents were made public.
PAC draft criticises PM, praises Pranab
Image: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee with PM Dr Manmonhan SinghPhotographs: Reuters
Given the way the 2G scam has unfolded in recent months, people are more likely to believe these conclusions, than any attempt to dilute the criticism against the PM or government functionaries, which is bound to be seen as a whitewash exercise.
The Congress may have also had another objective in mind.JPC head Chacko insisted that PAC's mandate be limited
Image: PC ChackoThe present PAC report, had it been adopted, would have rendered the JPC a washout in one swift stroke. If the JPC were to come to conclusions similar to the ones arrived at by Dr Joshi's sharply divided committee, it would have spelt trouble for the Congress members, and indeed for the government.
If the JPC were to soften the blow, its credibility would have come into question. The mere fact of a PAC headed by a BJP leader like Dr Joshi was problematic for P C Chacko, chairman of the JPC. That is why from the beginning Chacko and other members of the UPA were insisting that the PAC's mandate was limited -- which is going into the CAG report and enquiring whether the money was misspent -- and not an all-encompassing one, as Dr Joshi seemed to think.Naive to believe PAC would come out with consensus report
Image: Former telecom minister A Raja and DMK chief Karunanidhi's daughter KanimozhiUrban India, which had 'felt good' with Dr Manmohan Singh's neo-liberal policies, and backed him as an honest PM, suddenly began to experience a 'feel bad' with the plethora of scams that hit the headlines in recent months. And the PM's own image took a beating, as a leader who may be personally honest himself, but is presiding over a highly corrupt regime. The latest PAC draft report only went to reinforce that impression.
Admittedly, A Raja is in jail, a chargesheet has been filed against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi, daughter of Congress ally M Karunanidhi, several corporate honchos have been interrogated and imprisoned, and, finally, Suresh Kalmadi has also been picked up. But the government is not getting the benefit of these actions as it should, because it is seen to be acting at the instance of the Supreme Court, which is cracking the whip.
Congress, DMK in damage control mode after PAC draft
Image: Congress President Sonia Gandhi with KarunanidhiIt is a paradox of Indian politics that it was the Congress which was arguing in favour of the PAC all through the winter session of Parliament last year, pitching it as an effective instrument to probe the scam. It was the BJP, along with other opposition parties, which had pressed for the constitution of nothing other than a JPC. And now the PAC is becoming problematic for the Congress and the JPC may well turn the tables on the opposition in the future.
It goes without saying that politics is going to get even more sharply polarised in the weeks and months to come. And the 2G scam is not going to die down so easily.
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