“PM should be above of all suspicion”
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh breaking silence asserted that he had “nothing to hide’’ and was willing to appear before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
PAC headed by BJP’s M M Joshi, is looking into the CAG report that blew the lid over the irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation, forcing A Raja of the DMK to quit as telecom minister five weeks ago.
On Monday, the PM sought to remove the perception that he was coming in the way of a JPC probe. “The BJP,” he said speaking on the last day of the Congress plenary session in Burari, “has been falsely propagating that the UPA government is against the JPC because we do not want the PM to be questioned by a parliamentary committee, thereby implying that I have something to hide.”
“I am prepared to appear before the PAC even though there is no precedent to that effect,” said the PM. He emphasized, “I intend to write to the chairman of the PAC that I shall be happy to appear before the PAC…” Singh used a metaphor to come clean: “like Caesar’s wife, the Prime Minister should be above suspicion”.
“In the background of the multifaceted action now in place, no purpose will be served by a JPC, except to delay and politicise the probe,” he added.
(News Editor- Naushin Fatima Khan)
