An embarrassed Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday defended party veteran Murli Manohar Joshi and its MP and former law minister Ram Jethmalani, saying they were only responding to the "call of duty" that does amount to any indiscipline for defying the party stand.

Joshi is performing his "constitutional duty" as chairman of parliament's Public Account Committee (PAC) while Jethmalani is doing the "professional duty" as a senior advocate to offer to defend human right activist Binayak Sen sentenced to life by a Chhattisgarh court for sedition in allegedly supporting the insurgent Maoist groups, BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain told a press conference here.

Even Joshi is for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe, he asserted while ridiculing the PM and Sonia Gandhi for the "cover-up of the corrupt" by not allowing a JPC to investigate three scams of over Rs 250 lakh crore -- 2G spectrum allocation, loot in organising the Commonwealth Games and usurping of the defence land by the Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai.

Asked what comes first, the professional duty or the party and its principles, as Jethmalani's open endorsement of Sen goes against the anti-Maoist stand of the BJP which is in power in Chhattisgarh, Hussain snapped back: "Will a BJP doctor say no to treat a Congressman?"

Jethmalani also asserted that there was no conflict of interest in his offer to defend Sen as "no party line says that lawyers should not appear for some people." Moreover, he said: "Binayak Sen is not a traitor, I don't think whatever he has done amounts to sedition."

Hussain said the Congress would accept after 30 years when the history is written that it should have conceded the JPC instead of closing the year 2010 with the blot of corruption on its face alike its admission of truth on the Emergency and excesses after 35 years in the book the party released at its plenary session here early this month.

Instead of bringing to book the corrupt who have looted the public money and agree for a JPC probe to nail them, the Congress appears doing all possible to confer a sort of recognition to them and Dr Manmohan Singh cannot pride himself for presiding over the corrupt people in the UPA-I and UPA-II governments, Hussain affirmed.

He said if the PM has nothing to hide, he should not take cover of the PAC to skirt the opposition's demand for the JPC probe. Three scams that came to light in the recent past have drained the exchequer of Rs 2.50 lakh crore and as an economist Manmohan Singh knows that it amounts to 67 percent of the centre's annual budget, the BJP's MP spokesman and former union minister said.

Hussain said the government and the Congress are doing the same kind of false propaganda on the Opposition's demand for JPC to create confusion as done during the Emergency. Even in the belated admission of wrongs during the Emergency, he said the Congress has tried to attribute the blame on individuals, be it late Indira Gandhi or her son late Sanjay Gandhi instead of admitting that the entire Congress party and all those in the Congress, except those who quit in protest, were responsible.

Asked if the BJP will agree with the book putting blame on Sanjay Gandhi for various Emergency excesses, the BJP spokesman asserted that "all Congress leaders and that includes Sanjay Gandhi are responsible, but the party has a tradition of not attacking those who are dead." Hussain had the embarrassment as Sanjay's widow Maneka Gandhi and his son Varun are the BJP MPs.