NEW DELHI, DEC 20
Countering the opposition clamour for joint parliamentary committee probe into 2G scam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today made an unprecedented offer to appear before the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) but BJP and Left parties appear to be dismissive of it.
Saying he may have made mistakes in his six and half years at the helm, Singh made the offer to appear before the PAC headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi at the Congress plenary session, maintaining that he believed that like Caesar’s wife, the prime minister must be above suspicion.
He got strong backing from Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who said “We will take corruption head on on and demonstrate it through actions not through words alone.”.
Winding up the two-day conclave, she described as “inspiring” the prime minister’s assurance that he will take her five-point action plan against corruption unveiled in her speech yesterday.
At the end of the plenary, it was obvious that the Sonia five-point action plan would form the government’s road-map for battling corruption.
Gandhi’s plan unveiled in her presidential speech yesterday included fast-tracking of all corruption cases against bureaucrats and politicians.
with a definite time-frame and Congress chief ministers and ministers, including those at the Centre, giving up discretionary powers, especially in land allotment, that breed corruption.
The opposition parties virtually rejected the prime minister’s offer saying if he has nothing to hide and can appear before the PAC then why he cannot appear before the JPC.
They said PAC has a limited mandate while the JPC has a broader mandate and unlimited powers to probe matters of policy unlike the PAC.
In his speech, the highlight of the Plenary today, the prime minister also promised that no guilty person—whether he is a political leader or a government official whichever party he may belong to and howsoever powerful he may be—will be spared after the inquiries into the 2G spectrum allocation or CWG irregularities.
Singh spoke for the first time in detail on the corruption allegations levelled against his government and the washout of the parliament’s winter session, which he blamed on the opposition “obduracy”.
“As prime minister of this great country for last six-and-a-half years, I may have made mistakes but I have
tried to serve my country to the best of my ability. I sincerely believe that like Caesar’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,” Singh said.
The prime minister said it has “all the powers which can be given to a JPC and the PAC is the acknowledged watchdog of any financial impropriety or misconduct”.
Rejecting the opposition demand for a JPC probe, which led to a washout of the entire winter session of parliament, he said “Government is of the considered view that in the background of the multi-faceted action now in place, no purpose will be served by a JPC, except to delay the inquiry and politicise the matter.”
“I wish to state categorically that I have nothing to hide from the public at large and as a proof of my bonafides I intend to write to the chairman of the public accounts committee that I shall be happy to appear before the PAC, if it chooses to ask me to do so,” Singh said in his 30-minute address amid applause from over 15,000 delegates.
The prime minister attacked the BJP, saying it has been “falsely propagating” that the UPA government is against the JPC because “we do not want the prime minister to be questioned by a parliamentary committee, thereby implying that I have something to hide”.
In her concluding remarks, Gandhi asked the party cadre to counter all the allegations levelled by the opposition, especially the BJP, which she dubbed as “blatantly baseless and completely unfounded”.
Singh said the government was conducting a thorough probe in all aspects of the organisation of Commonwealth Games and the 2G spectrum allocation.
“These inquiries will be pursued vigorously and it is my promise to you that no guilty person will be spared – whether he is a political leader or a government official, whichever party he may belong to and howsoever powerful he may be,” he said..
He noted that the plenary session was taking place at a time when “various charges are being levelled against our party and our government. Our objectives and principles are being suspected.
Attacking the BJP for not sacking B S Yeddyurappa, he said, Congress was not like some opposition parties which insist on retaining the tainted chief minister despite scandalafter scandal. Yeddyurappa is facing allegations of corruption in land scams.
“Our approach to corruption also gets clearly reflected in our actions. Whether at the Centre or in the States, we have asked our ministers and chief ministers to step down merely on the basis of suspicion because we practice and believe in principled politics,” Singh said.
He was apparently referring to the resignation of A Raja as telecom minister in the wake of the 2G scam and the resignation of Ashok Chavan as Maharashtra chief minister on the Adarsh scam.
Sending a message that his government was sensitive on the issue of corruption, he said if there were anyshortcoming in the functioning of the government, “We will address them so that we can be more effective in our efforts to contain corruption.”
Noting that parliament is the best forum to keep a watch on and improve the functioning of the government, he said Parliament is at the centre of the country’s democratic edifice.
Targeting the opposition, he wondered what kind of politics the opposition believes in when they “do not have faith in Parliament”.
