In a sudden development, Jaswant Singh has resigned as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which he had refused to quit when he had a parting of ways with the BJP four months ago.
His resignation raised questions whether there was any rapprochement with the BJP but the 71-year-old leader ruled out any such possibility saying his action was not done under “any pressure” or with “some calculation”.
The former Union Minister had met Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Monday and submitted his resignation, which has been accepted with effect from December 31, to enable him complete three reports. His tenure as PAC Chairman ends in March next.
“I wanted to establish a point, which has got established, which is the primacy of autonomy of functioning of Parliamentary Committees,” said Singh, who was appointed as PAC Chairman on August 6.
He was expelled from the party on August 19 for writing a book - ‘Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence’ in which he had eulogised the Pakistan founder M. A. Jinnah and denigrated Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel.
Soon after his expulsion, the BJP had demanded that Singh should quit the PAC Chairman’s post as he had been nominated by the party to which he no longer belonged.
Senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and S.S. Ahluwalia, in fact, had met him on behalf of the party with a plea that he should quit as there was no provision for his removal.
Singh had refused to resign and the Speaker had also maintained that there was no provision to remove PAC Chairman unless he did on his own or was incapacitated.
The resignation raised eyebrows against the backdrop of Singh addressing L. K. Advani in the Lok Sabha on Monday with regard to the Gorkhaland issue and the Leader of Opposition responding to him as “my colleague“.
“I am surprised and saddened that you see some calculation. There is life beyond calculation even in politics. I did not calculate any advantage on the Gorkhaland issue,” he said in reply to questions whether the step was taken in the context of the exchange between him and Advani.
Singh spoke about his resignation while chairing a meeting of the PAC in Parliament this afternoon.
Asserting that he had not not resigned under pressure from BJP, he said “The day political parties start deciding as to when a member will demit chairmanship of a committee and make it their according to their convenience, that is the day the autonomy of Parliamentary committees shall be finished.”
Elected from Darjeeling, he said he also strongly backed the Gorkhaland demand though he fully would not not agree with whatever the Gorkha Jan Mukhti Morcha said.
He said that he would complete by December 24 the three reports that are being prepared. These reports are on the NREGA, mid- day meal scheme and the Scorpene deal.
The 22-member Public Accounts Committee is constituted by the Speaker each year for examination of accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by Parliament for expenditure of Government of India
