Bowing to the wishes of his party, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has decided not to pursue the probe by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) into the 2G scam “aggressively”.
Instead of probing the Rs1.76 lakh crore telecom scam, the PAC chairman has decided to look into a report related to health mission at the next hearing of the apex body of Parliament.
Highly placed sources in the PAC told DNA that the next meeting of PAC is slated to be held on January 12 and it will not take up the 2G scam.
Joshi was not immediately available for comment. Sources close to Joshi said he would return to the Capital on January 10.
The sources also said he had decided to be away from the Capital for a while and would celebrate his birthday in Varanasi on Wednesday.
BJP and NDA leaders had earlier asked Joshi not to hold meetings of PAC vigorously on the 2G scam particularly when the entire opposition, including the Left parties, was at loggerheads with the UPA government on setting up of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). Joshi initially ignored the suggestions and said PAC being headed by him had been seized of the 2G scam since June 30 last year. He had held several meetings of PAC and even got all the vital documents. The Opposition woke up only in the winter session to demand JPC probe and he as chairman of PAC won’t play the partisan role.
When the prime minister offered to appear before PAC rather than accepting the demand for a JPC, matters came to a head.
Sources said BJP chief Nitin Gadkari spoke to Joshi urging him to keep the sentiments of the opposition in mind while conducting proceedings of PAC.
It is learnt that the veteran BJP leader decided not to cross the “lakshman rekha”.
Accordingly, PAC did not take a decision on the prime minister’s offer to appear before the committee. Instead, Joshi put up the PM’s letter before the 22-member body for consideration. The decision was deferred.
Joshi had told DNA earlier that neither was he pursuing the 2G probe aggressively nor vigorously.
