Speaker has no option: Joshi

Unfazed by the “rejection” of the draft PAC report by a “majority,” BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Wednesday said Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had no option but to accept the report on the 2G scam presented by him.

“There is no other possibility and the Speaker should not reject it,” he told PTI in an interview on the raging controversy surrounding the draft report he submitted last week.

He was replying to a question on what options the Speaker had.

The draft report was sharply critical of the PMO, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

Not partisan

Mr. Joshi rejected criticism that he was partisan in the compilation of the report ignoring the views of members belonging to the Congress and the DMK and that the report was outsourced.

“These are serious charges. Anybody can charge anything if it doesn't suit them,” he said.

Replying to queries about the Congress claim that the draft report does not exist because the “majority has rejected it,” he said, “This is absurd.”

No concept of voting

“In PAC there is no vote. There is no concept of voting in the committee and there is no dissent. Only paras are adopted and suggestions are included. In fact, some suggestions have been incorporated,” he said, citing the example of acceptance of amendments given by members, including Yashwant Sinha (BJP) and N.K. Singh (JD-U).

Mr. Joshi refuted allegations about the authenticity of the report.

Report vetted

“The report was vetted by the Comptroller and Auditor General [CAG] after the April 28 meeting. All the amendments suggested and passed by the PAC were incorporated in the report. Even some of the mistakes in the report, which were pointed out by members, were corrected before submission,” he said.

He maintained the PAC had gone through the established procedure before submitting the report to the Speaker on April 30, the last working day of the outgoing PAC.

Asked if the report had been in the making for a long time as alleged by the Congress members, Mr. Joshi said “this is the norm.” 

source-PTI and The Hindu