Will PM get a clean-chit in JPC Report?

JPC Chairman P C Chacko has set the timeline. By April 16, the Draft JPC Report will be circulated and by April 23 the JPC meeting may take place where it could be ratified or dissent notes appended to it. The entire exercise is aimed at ensuring that the JPC Report is debated in the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament, which resumes on April 22 and concludes on May 10. The JPC Report is expected to exonerate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who former Telecom Minister A Raja sought to link by claiming that the two were in the know of what was happening. Apparently it was a ploy to pass on the buck, while the fact of the matter is that the policy was unexceptionable but Raja did tweak the rules to benefit his favourites. Grapevine has it that the BJP is not too happy with the outcome. The Congress wanted the CAG Report could be debated in the PAC, which is headed by BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered to appear and depose before the PAC. Far from seizing the opportunity, the BJP stuck to the JPC chorus, as many leaders were basically opposed to Joshi. The net result is that the Congress will get off-the-hook, even as BJP bemoans a wasted opportunity.