A Raja’s wheeling and dealing in the 2G spectrum licence allocation has cost the nation Rs 1.76,645 crore, making it arguably the mother of all scams. The opposition has (rightly) kept up the pressure on the government to fix the accountability and take action. So, the heads have started rolling.

Meanwhile, the central bureau of investigation, enforcement directorate and comptroller and auditor general have probed or are probing the irregularities even as the supreme court is seized of the matter. However, the opposition has insisted on a joint parliamentary committee probe, nothing less, to investigate the 2G scam as well as corruption in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games and Adarsh housing society of Mumbai.

The question, then, is: when agencies like CBI apart from the apex court have taken up the matter, do we need a JPC? Should the opposition take hint from the indications of the past week, relent on its demand and let parliament function? Or is it that nothing other than a JPC can go to the bottom of the matter?