Excessive politicking has threatened the future status of a prestigious parliamentary institution. The key watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee, has shed some of its “teeth” as a result of an open confrontation between its Chairman, KV Thomas, a senior Congressman, and members from the BJP over the former’s highly-publicised “threat” to summon the Prime Minister to be quizzed by the committee on demonetisation.
Though a “compromise” was brokered by members from other parties, and the Chairman attempted to clarify that the Prime Minister’s presence would be sought only if a consensus prevailed, the stand-off will leave a bitter taste.
For it blasts the theory that the House was Parliament “on show”, and committees projected “Parliament at work”: the sad reality being that committees are increasingly being divided on party lines, and the Presiding Officers of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been unable to check that disturbing trend.
It is not just the PAC that has been impacted, even reports of the Standing Committees are influenced by the political ideology to which their head subscribes. Conditions might have deteriorated even further had the demand been accepted for hearings of committees to be open to the media — they might have been reduced to another occasion for “showboating”.
As an experienced and much-respected member, Thomas ought to have been more circumspect when telling the media about plans to summon Narendra Modi. He could not have been unaware of the rules/convention that officials, not ministers, appear before the committee. Nor could he have been ignorant of a similar futile attempt by Murli Manohar Joshi to have Dr Manmohan Singh appear — that time around it were the UPA members of the PAC who had raised objections (the then Prime Minster had appeared before another specific-purpose committee).
And surely Thomas would have been alive to the snowballing bitterness that marks the present political discourse? The “buzz” is that the anti-Modi campaign of Rahul Gandhi had influenced the announcement of the PAC chairman: both te BJP and the Congress now prostrate themselves before their leaders — all norms and conventions are abandoned in the sycophantic atmosphere.
Since probing “scams” is a vital part of the PAC mandate, and a political angle is injected into most major scams, the future efficacy of the committee is in jeopardy. Mr Thomas could have awaited the committee’s questioning top officials of the RBI, finance ministry, etc., and then deciding if a “case” was made out for summoning the political leadership.
That might have “nailed” the demonetisation bungling, and pointed to the misadventure being politically triggered. By trying to target the Prime Minister personally, Thomas has de-fanged the PAC.