The Congress leader has shamed the JPC
Senior Congress leader PC Chacko should see the writing on the wall and resign as the Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G Spectrum scam. As many as 15 members of the 30-member panel have expressed in writing their lack of faith in his ability to be bipartisan, and have requested the lok Sabha Speaker to remove him. While Mr Chacko can put up a brave front and refuse to quit on the premise that he still enjoys the confidence of half the strength of the JPC, he must not forget that there are other members besides the 15 that have gone against him, who are unhappy with his performance. While they may not have demanded his head, these members have been equally adamant in their criticism of his conduct of shielding his party leaders. Given that Mr Chacko cannot afford to annoy the Congress high command by being free and fair, it is obvious that he can never win the trust of a large number of members of the parliamentary panel which he heads, and that he will continue to face tremendous opposition from within to whatever he says or does, because members don't have faith in him. He cannot run away from the situation, although he has just managed to postpone by a few days a meeting of the JPC which was to consider the discredited draft report on the scam. Sooner than later, he will have to face the consolidated outrage of the non-UPA parties in the parliamentary panel's meeting. The only way he can wriggle out of the unpleasant situation is to put in his papers and not wait for a response from the Speaker. In doing so, he will not only save further personal embarrassment but also pave the way for a hopefully impartial functioning of the JPC under another Member of Parliament as its head, to arrive at the truth.
Of course, true to character, Congress leaders have sought to divert the people's attention by demanding the resignation of senior BJP leaders who are in the JPC on the silly pretext that the presence of members who were part of the country's telecom policy (now under the scanner) during the NDA rule, amounts to a clash of interests. Congress leaders, who have raised this issue, must remember that their ground for protest had been rejected by the Speaker during the formation of the JPC. In any case, if one has to go by the logic that these leaders are presenting, then no member of the Congress, which heads the ruling coalition in whose tenure the scam has taken place, should be part of this panel.
Meanwhile, the draft report of the JPC is not worth the paper it is written on. For one, it is not supported by a majority of the members, with even parties like the Samajwadi Party which have not demanded Mr Chacko's scalp, announcing that they will oppose the draft document. The second reason is that the report is a one-sided presentation of the issue, prepared without seeking statements from key players like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Minister for Finance P Chidambaram and A Raja who, as Union Minister for Telecommunications had crafted and implemented the scam. Had Mr Chacko to summon the three and factored in their statements in the draft report, he would not be the laughing stock that he is today.