Congress, Opposition spar over 2G report in PAC meeting

NEW DELHI: The 2G spectrum allocation scam rocked Parliament's Public Accounts Committee meeting yet again on Tuesday with members of the ruling Congress raising the issue of the controversial report submitted by its chairperson M M Joshi, leading to a strong rebuff from the opposition.

The PAC meeting, called to discuss the CAG report on Land and Development of the Ministry of Urban Development, was drawing to a close when the scene turned acrimonious with Congress member Sanjay Nirupam raising the issue of the controversial report and news items in this regard.

Some PAC members had already left when Nirupam said that though the last meeting of the panel was held in a good spirit, there were reports in the press that the PAC Chairperson had not been allowed to speak and was heckled by the Congress members, sources said.

"At this point, Joshi intervened to say that Congress members had already stated that they had no faith in the Chair and had been attacking the Chair in every meeting in the recent past," a senior leader present at the meeting said.

This led to sparring between the Congress members and the opposition led by BJP, with BJD and Shiv Sena joining in.

The BJP leaders charged that the Congress leaders were trying to shield the corrupt and want the opposition initiative to fizzle out in the fight against corruption.

Attacking the Congress, an opposition leader said the ruling party was not talking about the statements made by its spokesperson who had alleged that the report - prepared by the previous PAC - was "outsourced" and had termed it as "Joshi's report".