Chandigarh: Parliamentary Affairs Minister P
K Bansal on Saturday said PAC 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 reporters here.
"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.
PTI
