The Hindu : PAC deadlock: more questions than answers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 14, 2003

National

National

PAC deadlock: more questions than answers

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI AUG. 13. A meeting of political party leaders in the chamber of the Lok Sabha Speaker today failed to end the deadlock between the ruling and Opposition parties over the Public Accounts Committee refusing to take notice of defence purchases related to the Kargil conflict of 1999 as a result of the Central Vigilance Commissioner's report not being made available to it. Hopes are now pinned on a meeting of party leaders called by the Speaker tomorrow morning.

Even as the controversy rages — there is no sign of any thaw in the Lok Sabha — more questions are being raised by both the sides, but few answers are available.

Was there no CVC report on defence purchases related to the Kargil war as claimed by the Bharatiya Janata Party? If no, then why did the Defence Ministry deny the report to the PAC on grounds of "secrecy" rather than saying that the CVC report did not cover the period the PAC was interested in? And finally, if the CVC did not cover the period around the Kargil war why did it not do this as the Defence Minister had ordered on February 14, 2000, a vigilance inquiry into "all defence deals" since 1989? Why is the Opposition making so much noise over a report which does not even exist?

As the two sides battle it out, with privilege notices issued against each other — the BJP today alleged that the PAC chairman, Buta Singh, had "hidden" a fact-sheet received from the CVC from other PAC members and had therefore violated the members' privilege — there seems to be little clarity about what really happened.

But what was certainly a shot in the arm for the Government was not only the ruling of the Rajya Sabha chairman rejecting the demand for a discussion in the House as "inappropriate", but also the surfacing of differences within the Opposition on the "boycott" of the Defence Minister, George Fernandes.

It seems that the Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist Congress Party, for example, do not share the view of the Congress and the Left on the "boycott" issue. It is reported that the SP and the NCP leaders, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Pawar, today stated at the Speaker's meeting that the continued "boycott" of Mr. Fernandes was "a disservice to the country" as important issues related to Defence could not be raised.

Somnath Chatterjee of the CPI (M) pointed out that the Government had not yet stated officially that there was no CVC report related to the Kargil war purchases. Instead of saying that the report was "secret" the Defence Ministry could have communicated to the PAC chairman that there was no relevant CVC report. Other Opposition leaders pointed out that two letters, one from Admiral R.V. Purohit and the other from former MP, Jayant Malhotra, both relating to Kargil, were referred to the CVC for "action". What happened to that? Mr. Chatterjee also wanted to know whether the CVC report had been made available to the BJP spokesperson, V.K. Malhotra (who has been saying there was no such CVC report)? "If Mr. Malhotra had access to it then why should the PAC not have access? And if he has not seen it on whose authority does he say the Kargil war purchases do not figure in it?"

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National