If the latter is true, Dr Singh will go down in history as a prime minister foisted into the job by a shaky Congress party to protect itself to stay in power before the interest of the nation. His offer appears to have been designed by the party’s top strategists with utmost care in order to confuse the nation and dent the opposition unity on the demand for a JPC probe into the case.

Let this be made very clear that the 2G spectrum allocation scam is not just a financial or accounting fraud although the CAG report had cited a potential revenue loss of up to Rs. 1,76,000 crore ($39 billion) to the national exchequer. It is a much bigger scandal concerning cash-for-cabinet-appointment charges against the government. It is alleged that large sums was spent by certain vested interest groups to get Andimuthu Raja of the DMK party appointed particularly for the post of the union telecom minister. There are strong evidences in support of this allegation following the leakage of Niira Radia tapes which recorded long private phone talks among heavyweight businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats and journalists, all working in unison to get Raja a particular ministerial berth in the union cabinet. The tapes also question the integrity of a number of other ministers in the UPA government and their business connection. The union government itself had authorized the secret Niira Radia phone-tapping. It is official. The evidences got to be genuine.

An investigation into such a major cash-for-cabinet-appointment allegation, having serious national security implications, can be and should be made by a JPC and a JPC alone. It is the biggest political-cum-financial scandal ever, involving national security, under the country’s democratic system embracing the British cabinet form of government. The Prime Minister, in consultation with his party bigwigs and alliance partner or partners, forms the council of ministers. The portfolio allocation is entirely his prerogative. Lobbyist Niira Radia Tapes clearly suggest otherwise. It would appear that there has been a serious infringement of the Prime Minister’s authority and powers by certain motivated, ill-intentioned external entities. That is the worry. Niira is not an ordinary Indian citizen. She is not even a non-resident Indian (NRI). She is a person of Indian origin (PIO) whose parents migrated to the United Kingdom from Kenya. Few know her real background and overseas connections.

There are at least a few ministers in the Monmohan Singh cabinet, representing both the Congress party and its political allies, whose functioning often resembles to Raja’s operational style in the telecom ministry, all promoting their individual agendas supporting one group of businessmen against the others. Their actions too may have cost the country billions of dollars in opportunity losses, questionable policies to kill public sector competition, fudging of corporate accounts, illegal fund transfers, large imports, speculation in commodities and high external commercial borrowings. These are serious matters. It appears that the Prime Minister has lost control over some of his individual cabinet colleagues as also of the Union Cabinet. The number of corruption cases, involving the ruling parties, has increased phenomenally. It is not the number alone, the nature and size of corruption are quite unnerving.

The 2G spectrum allocation scandal clearly exposes with documental evidences for the first time the undesirable and unauthorized external hand controlling the union cabinet and the government, partly or substantially. It is dangerous. No one would know this better than the tongue-tied Prime Minister. He knows it very well that an investigation into a cash-for-cabinet-appointment allegation is simply not within the jurisdiction of PAC. JPC alone is authorized and capable to look into an allegation as serious as this.

By offering to be personally questioned by the current PAC in the 2G scam case he is pooh-poohing the cash-for-cabinet-post allegation, which has shaken not only the Opposition in Parliament, but the entire nation. Manmohan Singh knows very well that he is the Prime Minister of India first and the prime minister of the UPA next. Left to his own conscience and personal probity, he would certainly put the nation’s interest before the UPA’s or the Congress party’s and allowed a JPC to get to the bottom of these allegations.

Whatever be its findings, a JPC probe would clear the air of growing public mistrust in the integrity of the union cabinet and the office of the prime minister permeating the country’s political atmosphere and mocking at its 60-year-old democratic institution. Let the PAC be busy in its own job of ascertaining the depth of the financial scam and the truth about such facts as persons behind the crime, sources of hush money and their destinations, possible subversion of established rules and procedures for gains, the role of the union cabinet, if any, in the approval of the DoT action and auction of the spectrum. The PAC report, if finalized within a few months, will come quite handy before a JPC investigation into the alleged external interference into, if not control over, the selection of and job allocation to ministers in the union cabinet and the money trail.

The prime minister must raise himself above all suspicions and pressures, coming from within his party or from outside, and order a totally independent investigation by a JPC into the Opposition allegations. In a democracy, the Opposition is an important and respectable institution. A democratically elected government should not gag the voice of the Opposition. That is what the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi tried to do in the mid-1970s and paid a heavy price for it.

The onus on the smooth operation of the Parliament is more on the ruling party or the coalition than on the opposition. Even the union government is held hamstrung. Its ministries are openly fighting against each other. It is having a continuous spat with opposition ruled states on internal security and economic issues. Industrial investments worth over Rs. 2,00,000 crores in opposition ruled states are blocked by the union government on various grounds. Investment proposals in UPA ruled states receive a different treatment from the centre.

The nation wants Manmohan Singh to act firmly and positively to bring discipline in the operation of the union cabinet and take full responsibility of its omissions and commissions. He should not allow himself to be taken for granted by his cabinet colleagues, alliance partners and his own party. The government morality is at its lowest ebb. The Prime Minister’s personal probity is being questioned by many. It is time that Manmohan Singh acts and acts fast to restore the public confidence in the government machinery and in the PMO. The ordering of a JPC into the cash-for-cabinet-appointment scandal by the Prime Minister will certainly be a strong welcome step towards establishing his personal credibility and the credibility of his government before the people of India. (IPA Service)