PM's offer a masterstroke, says Digvijaya

New Delhi: Congress on Monday described as a "masterstroke" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "brave and extraordinary" offer to appear before the Public Accounts Committee in connection with the parliamentary body's probe into the 2G Spectrum allocation.

"I congratulate the Prime Minister for making an unprecedented brave and extraordinary offer of his readiness to appear before the PAC headed by BJP leader Murali Manohar Joshi. It is a masterstroke," AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh told reporters.

Digvijaya Singh, however, steered clear of questions on whether the Prime Minister was "belatedly brave" as he could have made the offer earlier thereby saving the washout of winter session as also queries ponting out that even Congress President Sonia Gandhi had attacked Opposition for seeking his appearance before the JPC.

Seeking to counter the Opposition clamour for Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into second generation mobile telephony spectrum allocation scam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday made an unprecedented offer of appearing before the PAC, saying he has "nothing to hide".

"As Prime Minister of this great country for the last six-and-a-half years, I may have made mistakes but I have tried to serve my country to the best of my ability," he said.

"I sincerely believe that like Caesar's wife, the Prime Minister should be above suspicion and it is for this reason that I am prepared to appear before the PAC even though there is no precedent to that effect," the Prime Minister said addressing the Congress plenary in Delhi on its concluding day.

While congratulating the Prime Minister for his "frank gesture", Digvijaya Singh also stepped up attack on the BJP questioning why it does not trust in the political intelligence of its own leader Murali Manohar Joshi, who heads the PAC.

"Does Arun Jaitley not have faith in the intelligence of Murali Manohar Joshi," Singh asked adding that the former may have differences with the latter.

He also accused the main opposition party of wasting Rs 60-70 crore of taxpayers' money by not allowing the Winter Session to function.

"Moreover, BJP members kept on taking their daily allowances of Rs 2000 despite not participating in Parliament work during this time whereas Congress MPs decided to forego the same," Singh said.