NEW DELHI: The Government will hold an inquiry into the leak of the Pathak Inquiry Authority report and take "strong and firm action" against the guilty, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said here on Friday.

He said the purported contents were telecast on Thursday even before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh received the report, which was then sent to the Finance Ministry. An action taken report would be prepared by the Finance Ministry and it would be cleared by the Cabinet before the probe report together with the ATR was tabled in Parliament. That was the well-established procedure.

Mr. Dasmunsi promised that the United Progressive Alliance Government would not take more time to complete this process than what the National Democratic Alliance regime took on the Subramaniam committee report on the Kargil issue.

Inquiry focus

The focus of the inquiry, he suggested, would not be on the media houses that published the Pathak report on the Iraqi oil-for-food scam but on the person or persons who leaked it to the media.

The entire House was upset at the "leak" and even Speaker Somnath Chatterjee expressed his resentment, the Minister pointed out.

Decrying the Bharatiya Janata Party's "fondness" for disrupting Parliament on every issue, Mr. Dasmunsi said the former Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, now Leader of the Opposition, "showed no concern" when the Subramaniam report was leaked selectively before it was tabled in the House.

On his charge that the Government "managed" the Pathak inquiry to get a clean chit for the Congress, Mr. Dasmunsi said, "Mr. Advani was himself a master manipulator, whether it was [in] the matter of demolition of the Babri Masjid or other things. He is insulting Justice R.S. Pathak by saying this."

Leaders condemn BJP

Leaders of several parties condemned the disruption of Friday's proceedings by the BJP. Basudev Acharya (Communist Party of India - Marxist), Gurudas Dasgupta (Communist Party of India), C. Kuppusamy (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), Devendra Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and Brajesh Pathak (Bahujan Samaj Party) jointly protested against the manner in which Mr. Advani had his say when he was given an opportunity by the Speaker. Immediately afterwards, his partymen made noise to prevent anyone else from being heard.

The leaders described the leak of the Pathak report as "most unfortunate."

Describing the NDA as "Nagpur Disorder Academy," Mr. Yadav said those who were schooled there had no respect for parliamentary democracy. Mr. Dasgupta and Mr. Acharya said the "BJP was out to weaken and destroy the parliamentary democratic system" as it believed in "political fundamentalism" and "a unipolar political system."

Parties would not tolerate the BJP's strategy of its members speaking themselves, disrupting proceedings, and preventing MPs of other parties from raising concerns relating to their constituencies.

A debate on farmers' issues could not be held on Wednesday/Thursday because of disruption.

A BSP calling attention motion could not be taken up on Friday as the BJP resorted to disruption even during the time for private members' bills. "We condemn this collectively," they said.

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